Thorn of the White Rose
by Wishmaker91296
Summary: Naruto's life could not be any better. Everything is going his way and his life with Kakashi is perfect...But soon things start to change around him, and Naruto slowly becomes his own worst enemy. Sequel to "The White Rose" Co-author KitElizaKing KakaNaru NaruKaka KakashiXNaruto NarutoXKakashi KakashiNaruto NarutoKakashi
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! I just want to remind everyone that this is a sequel to "The White Rose". If you haven't read the story you may be lost, copy the link here to read the first part of the tale. s/7805983/1/The-White-Rose **

Thorn of the White Rose

Chapter 1

The Perfect Life

"Whoa! No, we're not gonna waste another moment in this town  
Whoa! And we won't come back, the world is calling out  
Whoa! Leave the past in the past, gonna find the future"  
When I'm Gone - Simple Plan

The leaves danced in the wind over the village they sheltered, caught in the summer breeze that blew through the boughs and over the high red walls. The beautiful green leaves of all shapes and sizes, from trees of all kinds slowly floating to rooftop and balcony, windowsill and paving stone as the bustling citizens of Konoha went on with their daily life. On such a fine summer day, with the sun shining down on them and that breeze to ruffle their hair and dry their sweat, hardly a frown could be found as the villagers worked and talked, and played and lived their lives.

Amongst all of the villagers on that fine summer day there was a blond teen who wore one of the most pleased smiles of them all. A seventeen year-old Shinobi who stepped out onto the landing of an apartment building in the Middle District, a grin to rival that of the great Green Beast himself lighting up his golden skin, complimenting perfectly the glow in his bright blue eyes. Naruto Uzumaki was happy. Happier than he could have ever dreamed he might be. The last three months had been some kind of wonderful despite the occasional trouble, and he was thinking about them as he watered his boyfriend's Christmas gift. "Life couldn't be any better, could it?" He said to the dozen or so nodding white blooms, one calloused hand reaching out to fondle the lop-sided flowers. The soft scent of strawberries, lemon and cream tickled his nose, and he inhaled deeply, his smile widening.

Except for a few bumps in the road, Naruto's life could hardly be any better. He was in love, and Kakashi loved him, and in those three months the best thing he'd done-besides forgiving Kakashi-had been finally making the rank of Chuunin, taking an abbreviated test his Baa-chan had arranged. _'No sense putting you in with those untried kids, baka.' _Tsunade had said. '_You'd blow them away with that chakra of yours.' _The councilors had had to agree, and now he was newly-minted Chuunin Naruto Uzumaki, and Kakashi had been so proud of him.

_And so happy for him._ Naruto's relationship with Kakashi was strong, and they were contented with each other. His love had been pulled from being sensei to his team and seconded to the ANBU for the time being and though he didn't like that, the time they got to share together between missions and whatnot had been the best parts of his life so far.

Nipping one droopy rose from the flourishing bush, Naruto finished up his chore and stepped back into the apartment, walking over to his boyfriend's bed to pick up the clothes he'd laid out. They switched between his and Kakashi's homes now. Sometimes his silver-haired former sensei would come to his apartment, but most of the time he would come here so they'd left a quite a few bits of clothing at each other's places between the two of them. Shucking the pants he'd been wearing, he moved into the bathroom to take a shower, playing idly with his Christmas gift as he waited for the water to heat a little.

The blue crystal caught the light and sparkled as he thought about his Jounin, heated spots appearing on Naruto's cheeks as his mind wandered over the time they'd been spending together. Everything had been going slowly. From that first night they'd had, Kakashi had insisted on doing everything at a dedicated and determined pace, teaching Naruto all that he could of loving another man in the most selfish and selfless of ways. Everything that his lover had done to him, Kakashi taught him how to do, and now Naruto could lose himself in touching and tasting the lean, awesome, taller man.

Just getting to call him his 'lover'…just thinking about Kakashi _being_ his lover was enough to bring a surge of heat to his groin, and to make him groan under the warm water washing down over him, but Naruto didn't touch.

There was a particularly sweet pleasure in saving himself for when his boyfriend got back. A weight and a heat that made him feel half-aroused all the time, and always more anxious for when Kakashi came back home to him.

Sure they hadn't done '_it_' yet, just with fingers and with…_tongues…_ The heat on Naruto's cheeks increased tenfold at that thought, but he pushed it away as he turned off the shower. _He could wait for that. __**He **__was learning self control._

The small moments he got to spend with Kakashi made up for whatever they weren't doing together. He'd never suspected that sitting curled up with his boyfriend while he read him jutsu scrolls at night, or kicking back with a picnic at a remote training ground were worth just as much as the heated ones with sweat and swearing. The total of all of those moments together, the sexy and the sweet, were the reasons Kakashi had totally stolen his heart.

Getting out of the shower, Naruto tugged on the pants he'd brought with him, pausing to bend over and roll up the legs. He and Kakashi were almost the same size despite the other man's height advantage, for the silver-haired man was lean and impeccably fit. Sometimes the waist was a little tight, but the teeen enjoyed having the distinctive scent of his lover around him so he put up with it. The black jeans looked good on him after all, and when he fished a black t-shirt out of Kakashi's chest of drawers to put on, it felt even more right.

He headed out the door, grabbing his sweatshirt from the coat tree beside the door on the way by. Shrugging it on, Naruto made sure to lock the door and reset the jutsus guarding the perimeter. Kakashi was a stickler about the protections around his apartment…he wasn't going to let him down.

…KNKNKN…

At one point in time Naruto wouldn't have enjoyed walking alone on these streets as he did today. The looks that had come his way, both masked and not, and the things the villagers had said about him still haunted him. Sure he still got some angry looks from some of the people, but now he didn't care. Now, things were finally going his way. He was in love and not one angry look or muttered curse could ever take that away from him.

A ball shot past him, and Naruto turned to watch it roll away, the shouts of the kids that had been playing with it begging him to send it back. He grinned, and leapt after it, his necklace bonking him on the nose as he pounced on it and spun around to throw it back. The ball sailed over their heads under the force of his toss, and he grinned an apology as he watched the kids chase after it. "Sorry!" With a wave he continued on his way, not at all regretting the fact he'd never got the chance to do that as a kid.

_Things were looking up for him. _He laughed at the thought and continued on. _The past needed to be left there._

The sushi restaurant was quiet when Naruto finally got there. Unlike his boyfriend, he still tried to be on time when he was supposed to be. Entering, he looked for Sakura and the rest of his available friends he was meeting there, his blue eyes scanning the scant crowd for recognizable faces. Just as he spotted her unmistakable pink hair, Sakura waved her hand at him, and he waved back in acknowledgment.

"Hey Sakura-chan, where is everyone else?" He called out as he wound his way across the furniture crowded floor to the huge table his teammate and her boyfriend were sitting at. "Hey, Lee!" Pulling out a chair Naruto sat down, exchanging smiles with the transformed teen. _Sakura's been a good influence on him. _He thought. _The teen looked like a better version of what he used to be._

"They should be here soon." His teammate replied, her gaze fixed on the menu as he settled on his seat, shrugging his orange sweatshirt off and over the back of the chair. "We're a bit early, and Kiba, Hinata and Shino just got back from a B-rank, they had to go home and change.

Nodding his understanding Naruto picked up the menu, goggling at the selection of items on it. There were so many! And it was all-you-can-eat!

"I can't believe Kakashi-sensei hasn't taken you to this place, Naruto!" Lee enthused, those big brown eyes of his looking out from under neatly cut, combed and parted hair. The other teen leaned across the table to point out the _takoyaki. _ "This is one of his favorite places according to Gai-Sensei!"

"I don't know." Naruto shrugged, hm'ing his agreement that they'd have to order that. "Every time I ask he just kinda, well... he just goes kinda green and begs to go somewhere else. It's pretty annoying." Nauto said with laugh. "But I've gotten a lot of Ichiraku ramen out of it!"

Sakura laughed with him, her green eyes sparkling as she looked at her teammate. Everyone was commenting on how Naruto was so much happier, and always in such a good mood. All of the rookies knew that Naruto's life had somehow taken a turn for the better, but Sakura knew that she saw it best. Only she and Lee, and a few precious others knew the real reason for the joy the blond radiated now and the calm satisfaction the formerly solitary Copy-Nin exuded, and those few in the know had all kind of agreed to not talk about it.

That didn't mean she didn't get to ask questions, though, especially since there was no one else around to overhear them. "So how is sensei, Naruto?" Sakura had heard disturbing rumours coming out of her _Shishou_'s office about the silver-haired man. Rumours that had her worrying about her sensei more than she ever had before. Since the battle with the Akatsuki and the recovery of Neji there had been a lot more activity on the Shinobis part, and in the ANBU as well. Missions coming and going, and a general air of anxiety that had set almost everyone's nerves on edge. Kakashi-sensei had been one of those going on longer and more dangerous missions—as befitted a Shinobi of his status—Sakura knew, but she also knew that if she was worrying about him more, Naruto would be thinking of almost nothing else.

Her blond teammate hated it when any of them were in trouble. And he hated it even more when there wasn't anything he could do about it.

Some of her insight was proven accurate when the normal golden tan of Naruto's face paled, and those blue eyes that had been so animatedly shining at Lee became dull and turned inwards. "He's…_uh, _he's alright, I guess…"

A shiver of worry prickled at Naruto's spine as he remembered the last time he'd seen his boyfriend. Kakashi had been adjusting the straps on his white ANBU chest armour, his single grey eye concentrating as he fixed it into place before heading out as Naruto sat on the bed and watched him. "I don't like you going out like this." He'd said. "I want to go with you."

His lover had looked over at him then, the painted mask tipped back over his silver hair giving Kakashi the grotesque semblance of having two sets of eyes trained on him. "Maa, Naruto." He'd said, shrugging bare, muscular shoulders in a way that made the blond teen's groin pang unexpectedly. "You knew when I was ordered back to ANBU that this would happen eventually."

_He'd known all right, but that hadn't meant that he liked it—he hadn't liked it at all…_

…KNKNKN…

_The long sigh his boyfriend made as he sat down set Naruto's nerves to vibrating for some reason, and he looked up from the scroll he'd been reading to peer at the other man, his eyes taking in the way Kakashi's shoulders were slumping, and the exhaustion he could read in the half-lidded grey eye. "You look tired, 'Kashi." He said softly, putting the scroll aside to sit up closer to his boyfriend. "Was the mission that difficult?"_

"_Aaa…" Kakashi's head thumped onto the back of the couch and the other man exhaled a long, weary breath. "No, not any more so than any other B rank, Naru." He said, one hand coming up to push off his forehead protector and rub at both eyes. "That's not it, though." There was something lurking in the way he wasn't looking at him…something that said 'danger' to Naruto and made his instincts prickle, so he crept a little closer, laying his legs in his lover's lap so that he was almost sitting on top of him._

"_What is it then?" Reaching up, Naruto hooked his fingers into the mask his boyfriend hadn't pulled down and did it for him, exposing the pale jaw and the corner of those delicious lips he so liked to kiss. Feeling that flutter of uncertainty, he leaned in and did so now, tilting Kakashi's face to him to kiss him gently, their lips touching in a warm welcome home that wrung another sigh out of the Jounin._

"_It was the news after the mission that you're not going to like." Turning a slight bit more on the couch, Kakashi looped his hands around Naruto's waist and pulled him closer, and then the teen could see the true weariness in the depths of that single grey eye, and the worry, too. _

"_What news?" He'd been in the village for days and hadn't heard anything bad. "What's wrong?"_

_Again with the sigh, a sound so heavy it was as if the weights on his boyfriend's shoulders had doubled…or trebled. Naruto felt his own worry begin to grow and he frowned as he smoothed one rough palm over a pale cheek. "You can tell me…you know you can." They'd been so honest with each other since that terrible separation, sharing all that they could within the constraints of their chosen profession. "C'mon…please?"_

"_The Hokage wants me back in the ANBU." The words came out of Kakashi in a rush, a look of such tight and anxious anticipation on his face that Naruto was taken aback. "It's just temporary… She just wants me back until the shortages are filled and the rookies brought up, but she's not giving me any choice about it."_

_Instantly the blond wanted to say 'no'. To say no and deny that his lover had ever said it, and to lalala his way into pretending that the wind had blown in the trees outside the window and somehow he'd heard ANBU in the scrape of the branches and twigs together, but he knew that it was impossible. That it couldn't be unsaid, and that he didn't have the ability to say no for Kakashi and get away with it. "Damn." Naruto said instead, a world of resentment and worry in that single word. "That sucks."_

_Kakashi laughed, but it had the hint of defeat to it, and then Naruto had felt himself pulled closer, his boyfriend's strong hands tugging him easily further onto the other man's lap. He was hugged then, and Kakashi buried his face in the crook of Naruto's neck, the sound of a long inhalation followed by a slower, lighter exhale. "I know you don't like this, Naru." A warm kiss feathered over his throat. "I actually don't like it either…but we just have to remember that it's only temporary."_

_Only temporary. _

_That had been some consolation as Kakashi tipped him backwards on the couch and laid himself over top of him, the kisses to his neck becoming lingering and harder, until the other man was sucking hot little marks into Naruto's skin. "I promise I'll be careful." The silver-haired man whispered, a lean thigh insinuating itself between Naruto's leg in a sexy way. "Okay?"_

_What else could Naruto say but 'okay', as he was slowly seduced? Melting into the couch and into Kakashi's ardent embrace, and letting his worries fade away._

…KNKNKN…

What else could he even say now? Sitting there with Sakura and Lee, he could admit that he was worried about Kakashi, but even as he looked at his teammate, Naruto could see the concern in her eyes and knew that she already understood, so he shrugged. "He's the best Shinobi ever, Sakura. You know that. I know that. He's going to come back like he always does."

"Cha!" The girl's fist curled with an audible creaking, and Naruto smiled at her show of support, even as Lee thumped a hand against the tabletop in agreement. "Kakashi-senseiis one of the greatest Shinobi ever!" Sakura declared. "You really don't have to worry about him."

Naruto had told himself that many times. That was the reason he was able to smile and be happy and enjoy himself when his boyfriend was out of Konoha on missions they could never talk about. _Kakashi is one of the best._ Those words let him sleep at night, and go out for lunches like this, because for years before Naruto had fallen in love with him, the Jounin had fought and survived and triumphed without him, and the teen knew that the man would have continued to do so if they'd never, ever kissed in the first place.

_Kakashi is one of the best._

"Hey guys!" Kiba's rough shout interrupted his thoughts, and Naruto jerked in surprise, turning in his chair to wave reflexively at the other Chuunin, and the two others that came trailing behind. There was Hinata, and Shino, and then Shikamaru and Choji came in, and suddenly there was no more time to talk about him and Kakashi as Ino made it nine at the table, and their lunch became raucous and fun…and Naruto was able to smile again.

…KNKNKN…

_Moist hot air slapped at Naruto's face as he pushed his way through the thick foliage, his padding feet making no noise in the thick undergrowth he was trodding over. Smells wanted to overwhelm his keen senses, so much so he didn't know which way to turn his head and he swung it this way and that, trying to absorb them all. This was more than he'd ever scented before, and so much stronger, too, and when he paced forwards, it seemed as if he was walking in a different way—maneuvering in a different way, and it was so much freer and easier than he'd ever moved before._

_A rustle in the undergrowth had him crouching down, Naruto's heart beginning to thump in anticipation. He let his nose investigate and below it was a paw…a long, narrow furry paw that stopped his thoughts and made him pause…_

_And Naruto knew that that paw was his._

_That paw was the Kyuubi's too, and he recognized that. A thrill of acknowledgement went through Naruto as he accepted his dream, and then with a flicker and a shudder, the entire dream changed, as if in his recognizing the dream he'd doomed it to turn into a nightmare. _

_It was close and steamy in the jungle now: Naruto had only two feet, and suddenly stifled senses where they'd been so strong before. His clothes were clinging to him, wet and constricting like they were trying to hold him back and strangle him, but beyond the dank feeling there was something wrong, he could feel it in the shiver of his skin and the way his insides squirmed. Something bad was going to happen if he didn't keep going…if he didn't push through. He could hear the sounds of fighting, the clash of steel on steel and the subdued screams that were all injured Shinobi allowed themselves to make when they were wounded and Naruto suddenly knew that there was one voice he was supposed to hear above them all._

_Kakashi. He was here somewhere. Naruto could feel it. He had to…he had to get to him!_

_Vines like strangling ropes surrounded him as he began to move faster. The clang of metal got louder, scarier, and his heart began to beat in double time, the drum of it in his ears joining the lethal chime of weaponry to increase his fear. Kakashi. He was here somewhere, fighting, but Naruto couldn't see him! He knew! He knew that he needed to get to him, needed to help him…where was he?_

_Eyes streaming with stinging sweat blinked and strained. A glimpse of pink and red to his right made him flinch, and almost change course, but the curdling strain in his stomach would not let him do that. Sakura was…Kami!_

_Kakashi was more important._

_Naruto pushed aside the guilt he felt and plunged through the thick leaves. They slapped at him, whacking him like slabs of green meat, _whackwhackwhack_, making his head ache and his body shudder. He fought free of them as he had the vines, his eyes wildly darting about as he panted out his fear. Where was he?! Where is he?! Please, Kami, just a glimpse of his hair! Just the sound of his voice!_

_Trembling now, Naruto pressed on, fighting the leaves and the trees and the vines and the fear that was trying to take him over and make him stumble and fall. Along with the beat of his heart in his ears and that dischordant clanging all that he could hear was his Jounin's name over and over and over again._

_Bursting through the thick foliage Naruto fell into a clearing, landing on his hands and knees in mud and gluck and stinking, rotting vegetation. He panted for breath before looking up, crystal droplets of salty sweat hanging from his lashes and from the tip of his nose. "Kakashi!" Before him the silver-haired man struggled in battle, two opponents with red and black cloaks bearing down on him._

"_Kakashi! Kakashi!"_

_Struggling, Naruto tried to get to his feet, but somehow in the time it had taken him to look up and see his boyfriend he'd sank down, and now his hands and lower legs were stuck—stuck deep in the mire and as he tugged and yanked and cursed with frustration, he just sank lower._

"_Kakashi!"_

_The coppery scent of blood scraped at his sensitive nose and Naruto's head jerked up just in time to see the scarlet spray of his Jounin's blood splatter across the clearing. Silver hair was blotched and blotted red and as he opened his mouth to scream his lover's name he saw a shining blade dart forwards at Kakashi's neck and…_

"_**Nnnooooo….**_**"** The scream echoed in the room as he jerked awake, his heart racing, his stomach clenched and hurting so bad that he had to roll to the side of his bed right away and hang his head over the floor, retching up the lunch that he'd enjoyed so much. "Nuh, nuh, nuh…" Naruto breathed, panting, trying to control the heaving that was still ripping at his guts and making his skin flush with shivery cold sweat that was far too like the sweat from his nightmare.

"Ka…kashi…" Stuttering, he managed to pull himself back from the edge and away from the acid, acrid scent of his own vomit. It was better than the smell of blood had been, and the sight of the same four walls and ceiling around him and the familiar bed beneath was better than that damned jungle. As he lay there on his belly waiting for his panic and fear to subside, Naruto could swear that he still felt those vines strangling him, and could feel the sensitive places on his skin where those meaty leaves had hit him. "Aughh." He groaned, sniffling back snot and tears and that cold sweat. "That was too real! Too damned real!"

Rolling over on his back Naruto stared at the ceiling, picking out every stain and pockmark on the plaster above Kakashi's bed that he'd had become familiar with since they'd made up. He felt better to be here, to inhale the smell of his lover and know that what he'd just seen was nothing more than a nightmare.

_A very scary, scary nightmare. One that he wasn't about to forget soon._

"Damnit, Kakashi." Naruto covered his wet, aching eyes with his forearm, the welling of misery and loneliness in his heart threatening to overwhelm him. "I miss you so much. You better come home safe, you irritating jerk!" Deep, deep in his belly, behind the seal that imprisoned him, Naruto felt the Kyuubi twist and turn, and he clamped a hand over his belly button, the prickle of the inking on his skin rising up under his hand. It seemed as if the fox was as unsettled by the nightmare as he'd been, he grimaced, thoughtlessly rubbing small circles over his stomach. Whether he was trying to calm it, or himself down, he didn't know, but this whole nightmare had made a terrible day out of one that had started out so happily.

"So much for the relaxing after hanging out with my friends." Naruto groaned to himself. Even with his arm over his eyes he could still see that spray of blood and see how his love had started to crumple. He was close to tears again, and he felt really whimpy and needy and _young_, and more than anything he wanted to feel Kakashi's chakra brush against his own and see that long, angular figure come through that door with that stupid painted mask on. He whimpered, and arched uncomfortably on the bed, pressing down harder against the seal as he fought to reject the pain and anxiety that had come with his very bad dream. "It was only a stupid nightmare, Naruto! Only a stupid nightmare because you ate too much stupid _takoyaki! _It w_asn't __**real**_!"

Saying it only made him feel a little bit better, but a little bit was better than nothing at all. He was able to take his arm away from his eyes and pull his t-shirt down over his stomach and sit up, the scent of his own vomit over the soothing scent of his lover making him cringe away from that side of the bed. That was something he was going to have to clean up. That was Kakashi's mat he was getting all stinky and stained, and he couldn't let the Jounin know that he'd been so foolish, and so worried about him that he'd actually thrown up. Kakashi worried too much about him already, and the last thing the blond would ever do to him was distract the older man with thoughts of his troubles while the Jounin was away on a mission.

That could very well be a deadly distraction. Fatal. With blood and muck and…

With a low, muttered oath he slid from the bed, carefully avoiding the mess he'd left on the floor. Cleaning supplies were in the hall closet and Naruto went for them, determined to erase any reminder of that terrible nightmare and then to take his second shower of the day and wash all of the rest of it away. When Kakashi got back…_ When _Kakashi got back, he'd greet him with laughter, and with smiles, and then he'd damned well make sure the man knew just how much he loved him, and he wouldn't let him get out of bed for at least three days.

Damn the missions! And damn his Baa-chan if she tried to order him out! And double damn any freaking nightmares that might try to scare the freaking shit out of him again! They would NOT succeed. Kakashi was the best! Naruto clenched a fist, grinding down his teeth as he reminded himself of that irrefutable fact.

_KAKASHI WAS THE BEST! _There. He could hang onto that and keep it for the truth. Something sharp and cool bit into his palm, and it wasn't until he looked down to see what it was that he realized he'd clenched his fist around his crystal and a thready bit of uncertainty snuck its way back in. "Kakashi _**is**_ the best." Naruto whispered to the pendant as he brought it to his lips and kissed it. "And don't you ever forget it, _dattebayo._"

Now he just had to keep on believing it.

**I hope all of you enjoyed the first chapter, I must be honest. This chapter was finished a bit ago but this came up and there were days I forget even to eat. I am very sorry about keeping you guys waiting. Please leave a review, and make sure to show King some love! –D.W**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thorn of the White Rose**

**Chapter Two**

**Under The Skin**

"So if I could I'd wish it all away.

If I thought tomorrow would take you away.

You're my peace of mind, my home, my center.

I'm just trying to hold on,

One more day." – Jambi by Tool

_Naruto ran through the jungle, his huge, furred feet making easy work of the thick underbrush and the gnarled, tangled foliage. All around him the sounds and scents of the jungle crowded in on him, filling his senses, showing him and telling him so much more than he had ever known before. Leaves brushed against his fur, vines that would grab him as a human so easily avoided with four feet and a body so massive the trees almost seemed to sway aside to get out of his way. Nine tails waved behind him and everything scattered in front of him and..._

_This was a dream, and Naruto knew it this time; even in the throes of the feral joy he was feeling at being so free again. Those feelings of freedom...they weren't his own. He knew that now too. Somehow the kyuubi was making him see these things and experience them when he slept, and his sleeping brain knew that, but think as he might, awake or not, Naruto couldn't find any harm in dreaming like this. _

_It was what came after this part of the dream that had him struggling and striving, and pushing to get out of this dream. He didn't want to be here anymore. The fun part was over. The fun was..._

_The fun was..._

_Bloody._

_Oh, the smell of it. The rain of it, and the sound of that coughing gasp..._

Naruto jerked himself awake, the throbbing race of his heart choking him as it threatened to pound right out of his throat. He gasped, coughing, and shuddered so violently that he had to throw himself upright in the bed, the thought that he was going to be sick so strong and so urgent that his stomach heaved and he bent over the side of the bed to be sure that he hit the floor.

"Naru..." The cool hand that touched the centre of his back sent a shiver of unwelcome fear up the teen's back, followed immediately by a wave of relief that Kakashi was behind him. That they were in their bed together in the man's apartment, and that every spot of blood that he'd seen in that terrible dream hadn't been real. "Naru, are you all right?"

Sniffing hard, the teen took the time to wipe the sweat from his face before he turned around, trying to affix a smile on his face that he knew his lover would not be fooled by. "Yeah." Naruto said, blinking the dampness out of his eyes as he looked at Kakashi in the low, grey light of the on-coming day. "I had a nightmare, is all."

The single eye that peered up at him from beneath the fall of thick, unruly silver hair widened slightly, but did not take on the glint of belief that Naruto had been hoping for, and he sighed as the hand that had been resting in the small of his back moved a little higher and began to rub small, soothing circles between his shoulder blades. Almost right away some of the tension that had been locking him up began to fade, and the relief that had come upon him upon waking spread right through to the rest of his body. "I'm sorry, 'Kashi...you must be tired..."

The man had only just gotten back from his last mission, the scattered scrapes and scratches that were all that were left of the wounds he'd incurred looking like lines of jagged ink in the gathering light of dawn. Without thinking about what he was doing, Naruto found himself reaching out a fingertip to delicately trace one, and the shiver that went down his spine this time was just as quickly erased by the hand that still stroked the centre of his back. Another pale hand came up to capture the finger that was tracing the wound and the teen breathed out softly as his boyfriend kissed the tip of it in reassurance.

"It's no matter, Naru." Kakashi replied to that soft apology. "I was nearly awake anyways." And he nearly had been, the shaking of the bed as his love was in the throes of the nightmare and the scent of warm fur that had filled his nostrils had tugged him from an exhausted sleep. He'd been alert enough to hear the strangled murmurs of _blood, blood_ before the younger man had bolted upright. That could be a common enough nightmare amongst shinobi, the jounin supposed, but he hated that it was the one he loved suffering from it.

"Come here then, and let me hold you." Tugging a bit harder on that captive hand, he pulled the unresisting body down to lay beside him, letting go of it only long enough to curl both of his arms around strong shoulders and pull Naruto right up against him. He'd missed his love while he'd been away on the mission but had not allowed himself the luxury of thinking about the sunny-haired blond he wanted to go back to.

On a mission, the goal was all, and any distraction could prove to be a fatal one for your teammates. That was a lesson he knew only too well.

But, the mission was done and the news from the scouting foray into the Land of Grass brought back to the Hokage and the council, and now he could be just where he wanted to be. _Right here_. Bending his head just a little, Kakashi placed a tender kiss on Naruto's cheek, brushing the tip of his nose over the marks on that soft golden skin. A sigh came from his love then, and not a moment after a mouth was eagerly seeking out his own, the next breath coming from his blond swallowed down as they kissed each other warmly.

"Mmm..." The jounin hummed, slim, callused fingers going up to tangle in the nest of blond hair, holding Naruto still as he explored the depths of that delicious mouth. "Always worth coming back to."

"You better always come back." Naruto murmured in return, holding onto the side of his lover's hip as he looked up through thick lashes to peer at the other man. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

The nightmares had been freaking him out. They'd been coming more and more often, and the teen had somehow told himself that they would stop the moment that Kakashi got back...but of course they hadn't. Nothing in Naruto's life could ever be so simple as that despite the way he wished and hoped that it could be.

"Naru..." There was a telling tone in the silver-haired man's voice that warned him of what would be coming next, and the teen already understood what it was that Kakashi was going to say. "I know." He said, his palm covering the other man's mouth before he could say it. "I know...don't say it."

_No promises. Wrong line of work. Shinobis..._

"_Ssshhh..."_ There was nothing there that Naruto wanted to hear, and so he shut Kakashi up in the surest way that he knew of, pushing the man over onto his back so that he could scramble atop of him and kiss him some more, putting all of his fears and worries into every stroke of their lips together and in the way he tried to touch all of his boyfriend's bare skin with as much urgent delicacy as he possibly could. Naruto's hands knew the lines and curves of the other man's body by now, but that didn't stop him from trying to learn them again on this quiet morning as he slithered down under the covers and added his mouth to the two hands taking on the sensual lesson.

"Aaa...Naruto." The muted whisper of his name through the covering sheets made the blond's heart leap, and he hummed softly in his throat just as he fastened eager lips to a peaky light brown nipple, drawing it in to lick and nibble at as a long-fingered hand slid into his hair to press him closer.

"You keep doing that and I'm not going to last long." It was a wry warning, brought about by the fact that he'd snuck a hand between them to grasp a very responsive length and stroke it gently. Kakashi arched up into that touch, the amazing strength in that lean body easily taking Naruto for the ride too, and he laughed where he was tonguing his lover's chest, biting teasingly with those small fangs of his as he'd discovered the jounin liked him to do.

"You're laughing into the face of danger." Kakashi growled at him, quickly and agilely manoeuvring the two of them so that they lay opposite ends to each other, the other shinobi's movements so graceful and effortless that the blond was completely rearranged before he knew what was happening. In that position his lover was able to nuzzle into the delicate skin of his groin, and Naruto's heart squeezed and throbbed as the other man licked a hot stripe over him, sucking on the most sensitive part of his crown in such a way as to make his hips jerk instinctively. "Damnit, Kakashi!" He cried out, his brain instantly blanking as pleasure sizzled through his nerve endings. "I'm supposed to be doing that to you!"

One of his lover's long, lean legs angled over his ribs, the other man giving him access to those deeply enticing parts of his anatomy that Naruto loved to explore. Such erotic permission made him forget his pout, and he found a grin on his lips as he leaned in to take a good, deep sniff of the sensual scent of his love. _Ahh... _Naruto swore that just that smell alone could make him explode.

Beside his cheek the long, hot and very enticing length of Kakashi's sex issued a silent '_get over here!'. _There was no way that he could resist such as call, and as his lover plied a slick tongue over the soft sac and the shivery skin behind his own length, Naruto gave into the sexy whisper and pressed his nose to the crease between groin and thigh, loving the noises a nip there got him. It was cute how the noises got louder the closer he got to that dripping tip, and when he paused to blow a breath across it, Kakashi made the most demanding sounds of all.

In that moment Kakashi swallowed him whole, taking him easily all the way down as Naruto bowed his back and cried out in bliss. The man had the nerve to laugh at him then...his punishment for being such a tease, he knew...for the vibrations were playing up and down his shaft and right into the core of his balls. It took all of Naruto's will, and not a bit of experience gained in the last couple of months, to keep from coming right away, and he focused on controlling himself until he knew that it wasn't going to happen, and then he turned his head to glare down the length of his body at his lover, his full bottom lip stuck out in another pout.

_If he thought he was going to get away with that without retribution, he was in for a big surprise._

It took but the seconds to stick his fingers in his mouth and slick them up, and then they were wriggling in and around that intimate opening, Naruto frowning with concentration as he sought to get Kakashi back for what he'd just done. He knew just where to find that sensitive little bump, so he headed right for it, listening to the way the older man's breathing began to change as he got near to it. Blue eyes sparkled as his boyfriend cried out for him, giving the teen a break from that intense sucking he'd been receiving and so he used that reprieve to duck his head down and do it back to Kakashi.

Time slipped away from Naruto then. The nightmare was shoved physically away and he forgot about it as heat and desire built in him, and then there was nothing but those long, pale legs and that thickness in his mouth and the want to just _be_ with Kakashi all of the time.

To do anything with Kakashi all of the time.

After the white lights and the explosions, when the salty bitterness in his mouth was kissed away by an equally as tangy tongue, Naruto lay amongst sprawled limbs and tangled, sweaty sheets, his heart a thick and solid thump behind his ribs. There was a smile on his face as Kakashi nuzzled him, that thin, perfect nose finding the tender spot behind his ear that made the teen squirm and giggle. Naruto trailed his fingertips over a finely-sculpted bicep, his smile widening with delight as a naughty palm and long, slim digits clutched around one of his butt cheeks and gave it a good squeeze.

"It's a good morning, isn't it, 'Kashi?" He sighed, worming his leg in between his lover's so he could cuddle closer. "We should just stay in bed all day."

The jounin snorted softly at the loopy tone in his blond's voice, one grey eye blinking down at that sweaty, flushed face and the bright grin that had always managed to make him feel better, no matter what the circumstances. "I think Tsunade-sama would get pretty upset with me if I didn't show up to the briefing this afternoon." He replied. "She gets all fisty when I'm late, so, _maa_...not showing up could be dangerous."

Those blue eyes focused on Kakashi's face, peering up at him from under the crescents of thick, golden lashes in a way that Naruto knew he adored, and the impish grin that curved those whisker marks tugged exactly at the jounin's heart in persuasive way that made him just want to give up...and give in. And that would be too easy.

_Too easy, and suicidal._ "Aaa, love, off you get." A subtle twist of his hips had Naruto on his back, and he took advantage, kissing that sweet mouth as the teen flailed, and then launching himself off the side of the bed. "Dibs on the shower." Kakashi cried out, sailing across the room as his love fought the sheets he'd been, perhaps deliberately, tangled up in. "I'll leave you some hot water."

A growl followed him into the other room, and he chortled as he turned the shower on, idle thoughts of what might happen if Naruto decided to follow him entertaining his naughty brain. The thoughts disappeared with the steam though, for whatever other things the teen had decided to do...washing his back hadn't been one of them.

...KNKNKN...

The explosion rained clods of dirt down around Naruto's head, bouncing off of his orange-clad shoulders and disappearing into the rising cloud of dust that had curtained the forest around him. "Nice try, Shika!" He cried out, leaping into the air to push off the trunk of a nearby tree and change direction. "_Nyah-hah..._you didn't get me!"

The invitation to spar that had been issued at that long-ago lunch had finally been answered, and Naruto, plus the three member of Team Asuma, had been doing their level best to knock down every tree standing in this section of the training ground. Working out with Kakashi had really improved Naruto's reaction time, so dodging Shikamaru's shadow attacks wasn't nearly as hard as it had once been, and his speed and strength were good enough that he'd survived going up against a massively expanded Choji—despite being bounced halfway back to the village a couple of times.

Ino's abilities had been the trickier ones, but it was there that Naruto found his inclination to keep moving served him well. So long as Shika couldn't pin him down, Ino couldn't get her wiggly little mind on him, and take him over that way!

Another explosion rocked the ground at his feet, only his improved reflex times taking him to safety under the low-hanging bows of a fir. Unfortunately, Naruto had lost track of the location of the third member of the team, for he felt the hard, huge hand of the Akimichi swat him a good one, sending him tumbling across the hard ground and right into the awaiting shadows of his dark-haired, pony-tailed teammate.

"Got 'im!" Choji shouted, echoing Shikamaru's shout of success at just the same time. The double shout echoed in Naruto's ears as he was frozen suddenly in his tracks, sprawled out as he was nearly at Ino's feet.

"_Nyah-hah, Naruto!"_ The blonde girl sing-songed his mocking laugh of earlier. "We got you now!"

"Aww, c'mon guys!" Naruto whined, straining with everything he had against the shadowy bonds holding him. "You've caught me, let me up now."

"No way." Ino replied smugly, her hands poised authoritatively on her hips. "We've got to finish the spar, _that's_ what we agreed on in the before we even started."

The small plume of dust that rose when the teen sat down in front of him temporarily filled most of Naruto's senses with dirt and interference, and by the time the dust had begun to settle, he could already feel the strange sensation of something else trying to wiggle into his head. It was a completely different feeling than being captured by Shika's shadow jutsu...so very much more invasive that his whole body cried out against it.

"What are you doing, Ino?" He heard the Nara teen ask, his voice sounding oddly worried. "He's really shaking hard."

Naruto didn't know what the importance of that was, but he felt as if Ino redoubled her efforts in response to it, pushing even harder into his skull, making him cry out in pain as something inside of him _pushed back._

"_Aggh!" _The blonde teen's scream filled the air in the destroyed clearing, ringing in Naruto's ears as his inner world filled with orange and red flames as the voice of the Kyuubi rose up to obscure all other sounds that he could hear.

Sucked down into his inner world, all that he could see was the colours of the kitsune demon that dwelled inside of him, and the sound of demon's roaring came into his ears. _~"Stupid brat!"~ _The kyuubi snarled and writhed, it's energies a fire that raged upwards, and the heat of it burned the inside of Naruto's skin. _~"Stupid brat! Cast her out! Idiot! Fool! Get her out of your..."~_

He threw himself headlong away from that voice, and from the blasting furnace heat of the demon presence within him. The nine-tailed demon may still be restrained by the seals that kept him locked up within Naruto, but it was capable of making its desires and fury quite plainly known. It had felt as if he might be falling victim to the cloak of the beast, but as Naruto emerged from his unanticipated fall into his own body, and blinked his eyes to clear his gaze, there was no sign of the blazing red light around him, just the sight of the three members of Team Asuma staring at him from where they sat with Ino on the ground.

"What? Huh?" Naruto stammered, his gaze going from person to person as he tried to figure out just why that whole thing had happened. "What...what did I do? _I didn't hurt anyone did I?!_" The memories of what he'd done to Sakura while under the influence of the being inside of him had his going up on his hands and knees, his blue eyes wide with horror. "I didn't...I didn't..."

"_Tch."_ Shikamaru intoned, rising easily to his feet from where he'd been crouched beside Ino. As Naruto watched anxiously, the other teen passed a hand over his tied-back hair, the usual look of insouciance the Nara usually wore coming back over his face. Naruto was reassured by that sight, and he dropped to his haunches to watch what would come next as the other two got up to their feet as well.

"You just have to be troublesome, don't you, Naruto?" Shikamaru continued, as Choji supported his blonde teammate. "Just when we think we've got you pinned, you go and pull some more of that weird, demon stuff and wiggle out of it again."

"Eh?" Was the only thing he could think of to say in return. "It's not like I planned it, Shikamaru." Groaning loudly, he pushed himself to get up to his feet, anxious blue eyes scanning over the other three shinobi as he brushed dirt from his clothes. "You're sure that you're all alright?" Naruto blurted, looking for burn marks, or any other evidence the kyuubi had gotten away from him.

Apparently the Nara was really good at making that _tch_ing noise, for he made it again. "Naruto, we're fine." Shikamaru replied. "Ino's a little shaken, but it's nothing she can't deal with."

"Yeah, Naruto, quit worrying." Ino interrupted, the slight grimace on her face turning into a lop-sided grin. "I'll be fine. Let me tell you, though...I won't ever be going into the head of a Jinchuuriki again...once was more than enough!"

Choji patted his blonde teammate on her shoulder, his round face breaking into a self-conscious grin as his stomach let go with a low, hungry grumble.

"Really, Choji!" Ino groaned.

"It was a hard spar, gimme a break!" The Akimichi responded, patting his empty belly.

"Good grief." There was a smack as Shikamaru dropped his face into his palms and huffed. He hid there for a moment before looking at the others. "C'mon, then...Mom's making her crab-fried rice tonight, and I know how much you all love it."

There was a thunderous shout of approval from Choji for that announcement, and even Ino joined in, the two of them turning away to follow Shikamaru as he began to walk back towards the village. Naruto, however, stayed behind, staring after the three members of Team Asuma as other thoughts began to take the place of his worries over what the kyuubi might have done to them. He was wondering now just what the kyuubi might have been doing to him, and whether the demon was the source of the frightening nightmares he'd been having. After all, those damned things always started with him _as_ the demon! Why had he never thought of this before?!

"Naruto...?" Startled out of his thoughts, the teen looked over to see Shikamaru looking at him questioningly, the dark-haired shinobi having lagged behind his teammates as they continued on towards Konoha without him. "You know that invitation was for you as well, don't you? My mom doesn't cook a lot of good dishes like Choji's mom does, but her crab-fried rice is pretty good."

"Ehh..." Naruto found a smile somewhere as he reflexively laced his fingers behind his head, grinning at his friend as he stood there waiting for a reply. He was touched that Shika was worried about him, but now he had an issue that he wanted to explore. The apartment was going to be empty for a while yet, what with Kakashi at that meeting with the Hokage and the others, and that would give him some time to figure out if the damned demon was the thing causing his nightmares. "That's all right, Shika." He waved him on his way. "I've...I've got other things that I need to do. Thanks for the spar! See ya, later!"

Naruto waved, and started away, not looking back to see how his friend had taken his abrupt departure. If he had, he may have seen the pensive expression that crossed over Shikamaru's face as he watched him sprint away, and he may have heard the softly muttered _'troublesome'_ that followed afterwards.

Narrowed dark eyes followed the blond until he disappeared into the forest around the training ground, and only then did Shikamaru turn to follow his friends, his thoughts on Naruto, and the unease he sensed growing around the other teen. _Another problem to be uncovered. _He thought, sighing at all the work that meant for him.

...KNKNKN...

Kakashi couldn't help but stare at the smoke that was rising to the celling. It was thick and grey, and redolent of old socks and sweat. He'd never liked the idea of smoking, or the smell of it. Nor had he ever want to try it, himself. The distaste wasn't so much for the idea that smoking was bad for you—because it was- it was the smell that revolted him. With a nose as sensitive as his was, that reek was a major turn off for him.

What else could he do, though? He glanced over at the bearded elder who was smoking the pipe; the grey-haired man was looking down at the map that the ANBU had setup to explain the situation in the Land of Grass as he puffed, heedless of how the other people in the room might feel. Just when Homura Mitokado had taken up a pipe the jounin didn't know, but the stench of it was only adding to the general feeling of misery that was trying to consume him.

Kakashi had seemingly become Tsunade's unofficial right hand man ever since his return to ANBU, and to his frustration that meant sitting in on all of the big meetings. Right there were two things Kakashi didn't care to have to put up with... meetings and smokers. Two very perfectly understandable reasons why he'd never wanted to be Hokage.

And now he was stuck in a room with both.

Life just wasn't fair. He could be reading, or spending more time with Naruto.

"All the people gathered outside of the village and began digging here." The ANBU in the boar mask interrupted Kakashi's pity fest, leaning over the large table as he pointed to a spot behind the village. "We thought they were digging fortifications or entrenchments, but it soon became apparent that they are searching for something instead." The man paused, and looked about the table from behind his porcelain mask. "Despite our best efforts to find out what it is, it's clear that not even the villagers know what it is they're supposed to be looking for."

Words faded out a bit as Kakashi turned his thoughts inward again, sorting through the archives of his memory to see if he could put that information to good use. He leaned back against a nearby wall, and let his thoughts go where they would, but in the end he had to give up, having no reference for items of importance buried in the Land of Grass.

Tuning back in, he was just in time for the latest recon report, and watched as several more pertinent bits of intel were added to the map on the table. New sightings of some of the other Akatsuki were noted, and there he began to notice a pattern, seeing how those partnered rogue shinobi had been sent out to the other lands that were known to have jinchuuriki. "They're after the tailed beasts." He said into the room, speaking his thought aloud. "It's no longer a 'when' they are going after them…" Kakashi clarified, explaining his point to the others as he sauntered closer to the table and began to point out those telltale locations to Tsunade and the elders. "It's now."

Elder Koharu grunted an agreement, the woman raising a significant brow as she looked towards the hokage. Elder Homura agree, letting loose a cloud of stinking smoke much to the silver-haired jounin's displeasure. "They will be coming here for him next." The bearded man said, and earned even more of Kakashi's antipathy. "We will have to keep him close to the village, and protected."

Tsunade's golden eyes came to rest on Kakashi, the very speculative look in them a clue that she thought Naruto already well-protected. He nodded at her, for he would protect his love to the very best of his ability—so long as he was in the village.

That was the issue, and she returned his nod, but he didn't hold out much hope that he would be pulled from ANBU duty and reassigned back to Team status. This outstanding problem with the Land of Grass was going to take precedence over the one he wanted to protect, and as both he and the Hokage turned back to the table, they were both in silent agreement on that.

**Sorry it took so long, a lot of things came up. Anyway always want to thank you guys for staying around and thanks to my amazing co-writer. Please review! Thanks. -Wish**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thorn of the White Rose**

**Chapter Three**

**The Great Divide**

"Fake Plastic life,

full of wasted years,

love lost inside,

diabolic fear."

\- Breaking the Silence's by Breaking Benjamin

_**BuurRraaappp...**_

The exceedingly loud burp broke the mellow silence of the twilight like an explosive tag going off, echoing from the nearby buildings and drawing the disapproving stares of several passers-by to the strolling trio. A few muttered expletives expressed the louder displeasure at such a noise being emitted without the necessary apology, but no one dared to stop the three shinobi and say such a thing to their faces.

"Sheesh, Choji!" Shikamaru groaned, passing a hand over his face as if he could wipe the whole memory of that oral atrocity away just with that gesture. "Did you have to point that weapon of mass destruction our way? Couldn't you just have burped to the clouds and boiled them off, or something?!"

"_Ewww...I'll say!"_ The blonde girl that had been walking between them abruptly switched sides, Ino waving a hand in front of her in hope that the scant breeze would push away the overwhelming odour of the nacho-cheezy-fried-octopi chips their teammate had been eating. "That was the most disgusting thing I've ever smelled!" She slid sideways a few steps, but continued to keep pace, the look on her face one of intense dislike. "I'm gonna smell like I took a swim in the garbage dump!"

"How troublesome." Shika muttered, linking his hands behind his head as they walked. "Now all she's going to do is talk about how long it takes to wash the smell out of her hair. Thanks, Choji."

"Hey...!" The other part of their trio finally spoke, the broad grin on his face evidence that he had enjoyed every second of that spectacular emission. "It's not my fault. You know my Dad always says 'better out than in', right?"

"No wonder my Dad always took extra breath mints with him whenever they went on mission." Ino groused back, still several feet to their right. "I always wondered what he needed them for. I figured for _special_ missions, you know? But now I know what the real reason was."

Choji just chuckled, scratching at one ear as he searched in the capacious pockets of his coat for something else to eat, pulling forth a crumpled foil packet that he proceeded to pull apart with gusto. "Ahhh..." He sighed, a big hand dipping in to come out with a red-dusted chip, which he waved triumphantly. "After dinner snacks are the best!"

"Uh, Ino..." Shika eyed that red chip and shuddered in remembrance. "Those are those chilli-seaweed flavoured ones..."

"That smelled like a low tide full of dead fish?!" Her blue eyes were very, very wide with horror.

"Yeah..."

"Kami...why bother with a war when we've got a teammate trying to kill us?" Ino murmured the words softly, and began to plot her escape, wanting to get as far away from their red-haired friend as she could before those snacks made their appearance on their way back out of Choji's body. "I'll just be turning off at the next intersection, then."

"_Heyyy..." _The sturdy teen whined, munching down another chip. "It's not that bad."

The looks he got back from the other two told him differently though. The contained look of reprimand in his normally placid jounin friend's face more than enough to inform him that this was not something he wanted to argue about. Choji shrugged, and kept on eating. _He should be home by the time those things burped back anyways._

"Have any of you seen Naruto lately?"

The sudden change of subject, and the not-so-bored tone of Shikamaru's voice had both of the other teens looking at him with interest. The dark-haired part of their trio was notorious for not involving himself with things unless they were of utmost importance. The small details and seemingly unimportant tidbits of information that Shikamaru normally collected were usually gathered in silence, without anyone else ever noticing that he'd done so. And then, once he'd added them to his storehouse of knowledge, he only talked about them when he deemed they'd come round to being important to something.

Apparently Naruto's whereabouts had become important to their teammate.

"Mission?" Ino suggested, her blonde brows raising in question.

"No." Shika responded, his dark eyes watching a particular cloud pass by overhead. "Restricted to the immediate area around the village because of the Akatsuki.

"Training." Choji said with certainty. "Out in the furthest fields like he was before Neji came back. You remember? Something super secret with Kakashi-_sensei_ and Yamato-_taicho_."

"Kakashi-_sensei_ is out on a mission _with_ Yamato-_taicho_, Choji, so that's definitely not it." If Shika sounded a bit cranky, his teammates were too used to it, and just ignored him. "Normally he'd be going around asking everyone to spar with him...but I haven't seen him anywhere."

"Hmm...now that I think about it..." Ino murmured, her blue eyes cast down in thought. "I haven't either."

The three of them strolled onwards, caught up in their individual thoughts, trying to reason out just why their normally effusive and unavoidably enthusiastic friend might be avoiding them these days. They walked on past where Ino had been planning on leaving them, eventually beginning to exchange suggestions and ideas as to what Naruto could be up to. Shika had already considered almost all of them, and so was able to shoot most of them down, but he was starting up a mental list of places to look when they passed by the one self-serve laundromat that Konoha had and a very familiar voice drew all three of them to stare into the front window.

"Well, there he is." Choji said, pointing out Naruto, who seemed to be in the middle of washing his sheets. The big teen's face was pulling down into a frown, for he was seeing something that he didn't understand. "But, why is he here, doing his own clothes, when he could be using the laundry at the Jounin Compound just like every other unmarried shinobi?"

Shikamaru turned and frowned at his teammate, and then pivoted to resume their walk. "You really don't know?" He asked, hearing Ino and Choji fall into step beside him. "You've got to remember that Naruto hasn't always been a hero, you know. That the people that like him now didn't always way back when, and when he graduated from the Academy, there were those that still wouldn't wait on him. Do things for him."

"You mean...?"

"Yeah. He's been washing his own clothes all of his life, Ino. I saw him going down the street with a big bag years ago and followed him here. That's how I know."

"But...what about now?" It was a fair question. Naruto was much better known and a whole lot better liked now. A thought that made the blonde shinobi frown, for she'd been one of those hyper-prejudiced people not so long ago. It had taken a lot of growing up for her to realize just what a great guy Naruto really was.

"Oh, I'm sure that most of them would do it for him now, but, why would Naruto even think of asking them when he's been rejected so often before? To his mind, I'm sure that it doesn't even come up."

"That's not right." The red-haired teen muttered as he swallowed another chip. "Nobody should be used that way."

Shikamaru glanced back over his shoulder into the building as they walked away, his sharp, focused gaze taking in the sight of their comrade as he busied himself folding sheets. There was something about the way that Naruto was moving. Something in the way he held himself that spoke of a great exhaustion and a listlessness that he hadn't seen in the blond until recently . That normally boundless fount of energy seemed to be depleted somehow, something that looked like it had become worse after Kakashi-_sensei_ had left on his mission over a week ago. _There was definitely something wrong with Naruto._ He sighed to himself, calculating just how much trouble it was going to be to find out what it was. "_Aaa... _Yeah, no one ever deserves to be treated like that."

Silence fell between them as they strolled on, eventually separating to go their own ways without having said another word to each other as they each disappeared into the night. There wasn't much to say when they were all guilty of once being 'those' kind of people...the kind that treated other people like that.

Even if Shikamaru had only been guilty of laziness and inaction—of not doing anything when he should have back then—he was still regretful that he hadn't found the motivation to actually interfere. _That_ was why he was just as guilty as the others were. This time though, he could speak up. And this time, he could do something to help Naruto.

Shrugging his shoulders back, he headed home, staring down at the cobbled streets beneath his feet as he began to think. _Yeah, this time... he would do something help._

...KNKNKN...

_Blood spattered over Naruto's fur, the scent of it rich and thick, and so terribly, terribly delicious to smell. His belly rumbled, his throat constricted and he peeled back his lips to bare his fangs and...and..._

_Bitebitebite...oh, his prey was there, his prey, his..._

_Silver hair encrimsoned, mask ripped and torn, and blood...so much blood! So fine, so tasty! Must...muussttt..._

_That gaping, glimmering scarlet smile._

Naruto jerked himself awake, a feat of will that dragged him from that nightmare place where he wore the Kyuubi's fur and had the thoughts of the demon inside of him, and the things that he saw were the portents of the end of his world at he wanted it to be. "No..._no_!" He moaned, feeling the cold, prickling sweat of incipient nausea erupt all over his body. "Nono...no!"

Swallowing hard, he managed to keep the little he'd eaten for supper down, the salty noodles rolling round and round in his clenching gut as he fought off the memories of that terrible dream. _It had to be the Kyuubi. The nightmares had to be coming from him!_

But, sitting there amidst the wreckage of his bed, shivering as the cool air played over his sweaty skin, Naruto couldn't think of a single reason why he'd be able to see these horrible dreams all of a sudden. In all of the time that he'd had the fox demon inside of him, he hadn't had dreams like this. And, he hadn't had them about anyone as important to him as Kakashi had become. _In fact..._he thought, shoving his hands back through his wet hair. _He didn't used to remember any of his dreams, at all._

He wished that there was a way for him to delve back inside to see the big demon again and maybe see if it would talk to him. It was crazy, he knew, because the Kyuubi never volunteered to do anything for him, never even did anything but growl at him and try to lash out through those bars that sealed him away. But, he felt like he would do anything to get back inside there and try and talk to it.

Flopping back down on the bed, he stared up at the ceiling, knowing that he wasn't going to get anymore sleep that night. The impossibility of sleeping after seeing Kakashi covered in blood in those damned dreams had evaded him ever since his boyfriend had gone off on his mission; watching him put on those pieces of ceramic armour, and don that painted mask had been just the same thing as Naruto making himself a promise to never have another good night of sleep until the silver-haired man came back.

Because he hadn't. Naruto's stomach growled as it reminded him of another fact. _He hadn't been able to eat, either. _And that had never happened to him before.

"Gah...!" He exclaimed to the shadowy darkness around him. "I hate being in love!" Yet, as the words left his lips, Naruto knew that he didn't mean them. That he'd suffer a thousand nights of horrible dreams if it meant having a love like he had in his life right now. Kakashi was..._everything _to him, and there wasn't anything that Naruto wouldn't do to make sure that he was safe.

_Absolutely and forever safe._

...KNKNKN...

The tag exploded and threw him back on his ass in the dirt, kicking up a cloud of dust and debris that settled around him, and set him to coughing as he lay there, staring up until the cloud dissipated and the cooling blue of the late-afternoon sky could be seen again. "I don't know what I'm doing out here." Naruto said to the sun, squinting into the golden light. "I don't know why I keep coming back and doing this, day after day. He's..."

His voice failed him at the thought of Kakashi, and the length of days in which he hadn't seen his lover. Days and nights, and nightmares that woke him again and again until going to sleep was like an S-ranked mission. Naruto struggled through it night after night, and came to the training fields during the day so that he could avoid everyone else. People wanted to talk to him, and ask him questions, and he really didn't know what to say back to him.

"Yeah, I know I look tired." He said to the sun. "And I know I look like I haven't been eating. 'Cause, I haven't." Naruto shut his eyes, scrubbing both dirty palms over his sweating face. "Because I haven't been sleeping, stupid! Why d'ya think?!"

Scowling at his imaginary interrogator, the blond teen finally sat up, looking around him at the destruction that he'd made with his own two hands and all of the negative emotions that he'd been trying to work off. It didn't seem like enough considering what was still heavy and thick inside of his heart. He felt like he could get up and just let it all go, and really make everything blow...maybe, maybe then, if he was lucky...he would knock himself out and finally get some sleep.

"Stupid Naruto!" That whiskery scowl was turned on himself this time as he brushed at his clothes and raised another cloud of dust. He coughed his way out of it, staggering slightly as he made his way to what remained of a nearby tree to lean against what was left of its trunk. "And stupid, stupid Kakashi...would you just hurry up and get home already!?"

"Yo."

That dry, familiar voice made him whirl around, and Naruto squinted at one of the last people he'd ever have expected to see so far from Konoha. "Shikamaru?" He asked, like he wasn't sure that what he was seeing wasn't a hallucination or something. "What are you doing way out here? Isn't this an awfully long way for you to come?"

Slim shoulders lifted in a lazy shrug as brown eyes narrowed on him, and it struck Naruto that there was nothing lazy in that gaze, despite the perpetual slouch of the rest of the other shinobi. He was suddenly suspicious, even he, one of the slower shinobi to understand such things, getting that Shikamaru hadn't just somehow found himself way out in one of the furthest training fields by accident. "What do you want?" Naruto gritted, his eyes blazing blue with uncharacteristic ire. "There's nothing wrong with me!"

"I never said that there was...did I?" The _jounin_ returned as he plopped himself down on the ground and linked his fingers behind his head, that sharp, direct gaze turning to look up at the sky instead of Naruto. "I never said anything to you other than 'yo'."

Opening his mouth to rebut that assertion, the blond teen had to close it again when he realized that Shikamaru was absolutely right. "_Hmph!" _He said, instead, and gave serious thought to just leaving before he really could be asked anything; but the notion of just up and running away was somehow just as bad as having someone he liked think that there was something wrong with him. Naruto had never been one to give up on _anything_, and this wasn't going to be the first time for it.

Sighing, he stepped a bit closer to his friend and flopped down beside him, taking up an identical pose as he looked up at the clouds, too. "So..." He said, as the silence stretched out between them, his gaze still pointed upwards so he didn't see the pleased smile that appeared on the other teen's mouth. "How is everyone? I...I haven't seen them in a while."

"Good. _Good_." Shikamaru replied, glad that his plan to wait out Naruto had been a success. _There'd really been no question of it, after all. The blond did like to talk, and he did worry about everyone. _"I mean the ones that I've seen lately, anyways. Sakura's been busy at the hospital and with Lee, and Sai is...well, _Sai, _but I've seen Neji and Hinata recently, and they were fine. Shino's off with his uncles learning a new jutsu, and Choji, Ino and I just had supper, so...yeah...I think we're all good."

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Naruto nod his understanding and it was less troublesome now that the blond was taking part in the conversation. There were hints and things that Shika needed to find out, and maybe if he just led him around to point of this visit...

"So, what have you been training out here for, Naruto?" He asked, his dark brown eyes following a iris-shaped cloud across the blue sky above him. "Some mission that we don't know about? Or is it some kind of incredible jutsu like last time?"

"Nah...nothing like that." Came the reply. "Just, y'know, trying to keep in top form. Trying to keep myself sharp 'cause, _ahh_, I can't really leave the village at all right now." Naruto hesitated, and Shikamaru, who knew that the other teen hated confessing to any kinds of weaknesses, gave him an out by admitting that he knew about the restrictions.

"Because of the Akatsuki, yeah?" He supplied. "I know they've been on the move lately, and that Tsunade-_sama_, and Kakashi-_sensei_ have been really worried about them finding you."

A wistful frown appeared on Naruto's face at the mention of his former _sensei_, one that Shika couldn't miss, even out of the corner of his eyes. It gave credence to his belief that there was something serious going on between the two shinobi...a conclusion he'd come to a while ago based on the little things he'd picked up from their teammates, and odd, new behaviours of the blond and the silver-haired man. _Something really serious._

Besides, Sakura was being extra careful to not say something every time she saw Naruto and she was anywhere near the rest of the rookies. So careful, that it was obvious that she had a big secret that she didn't want to accidentally share. Shika had seen her punch Sai on more than one occasion when the dark-haired member of her team had started to talk about something he shouldn't, and _shush_ Lee, too—the boyfriend that almost seemed to swoon with vicarious happiness whenever he saw Naruto, those big, figurative hearts flashing in Lee's brown eyes not _for_ the blond, but because of something the blond was involved in.

_An affair. _Shikamaru reckoned. _With his sensei._

_Eh, not that he cared, really...it was just more knowledge to accumulate. How troublesome._

Anyways, the young jounin reckoned that there was more than just worry over a missing, _er,_ lover that had the blond all twisted up. Something worse than worry that was changing him so much in such a short time. He hadn't seen Naruto this bad even when the whole thing with Sora had happened, and the Nine-Tails demon had been getting out on him.

"Oh..." A big yawn escaped him as he peered up at the lowering sun. "This is a good afternoon for a nap."

Shika could almost feel those blue eyes upon him, and well imagine the unhappy look in them. Crossing his legs at the ankle, he settled back as if he were going to do just that, a feat not unheard of for him, and then he heard Naruto snort his disbelief. "Must be nice." The other teen said.

"Huh? What?" One dark eye slanted open, and Shikamaru gazed lazily at the blond. "What d'you say?"

He'd never resented his friend's ability to fall asleep wherever and whenever he wanted to, but right now Naruto really did hate that he was witnessing another drift off to sleep when he hadn't been able to do that without fear for weeks now. Heat blazed through him, but he knew that it wasn't fair, and he struggled against it even as he watched Shikamaru settle down for that much-envied nap. "I said..." He replied without thinking. "That it must be nice to just be able to fall off to sleep like that."

"Hmm..." Was the reply, and how maddening was that?!

"Gah!" Naruto gave up, letting go of his resentment no matter how much he wanted to hold onto it. He closed his eyes, too, figuring that if he didn't have the wherewithal to just get up and walk away, he might as well join in. Maybe sleeping in the day would be different. Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly, he soon found himself falling asleep, relaxing beneath the light of the sun, and in the company of someone he knew that he could trust.

"_Naruto...?"_ The whisper of his friend's voice came to him just at the edges of that warm, deep place. He was floating in a sea...that restful, easing sea that had eluded him of late...and he didn't feel as if he was being beckoned away from it, but he felt...he felt as if he could just answer and then be done with it. "_Mm...yeah?"_

"_Must be a real pain to not be able to sleep?"_

"_Hm..." _He breathed, a niggle of ire that he was being disturbed just then making his brow wrinkle momentarily, but he felt compelled to answer anyway. "_Yeah...yeah, it is."_

"_Naruto...?" _The soft whisper of that voice again, almost as soothing in its low intensity as the sensation of falling asleep was. _"Why can't you sleep?"_

A shudder went through him that almost shook him from that sea. That almost turned the warm and nurturing waters to murk and mud and crimson quicksand. But he struggled and gasped, and rolled his face towards the soft voice and let the sucking feeling fade away, resting back in the warmth of the lightly rolling waves again. _"Naruto...?"_

_Ah, that voice again, stoic and slow, and slightly lazy in its drawl._

"_Why can't you sleep?"_

Just maybe, maybe if he answered he could go to sleep. Just maybe... And how easy was it to finally say _"The nightmares. I...I have nightmares, and I..."_

The almost immediate and terrified reaction of the other teen made Shikamaru speak again in a hurry, rolling over onto his side to _shush _and sooth, and enable Naruto to stay in that just-awake state that had made him so open to answering his questions. But, the young jounin could see just how awful the thoughts of those nightmares were, and he stretched out a hand in commiseration and almost touched the blond, holding back only in fear that he might awaken him instead.

So, he did what he had done before and spoke low and soft, drawling his words so that Naruto heard his words and concentrated on his words only. "It's all right, Naruto...really. Just go on to sleep, and you won't have any nightmares."

The other teen seemed to take him at his promise, and the lines of stress and open, awful emotion that had been marring his face disappeared, and Shika let out a relieved sigh. _Those nightmares must have been something to make him make that face. _He thought, blotting the nervous sweat from his brow with the edge of his sleeve. _What on earth could...?_

_Ah._ Shikamaru shifted back onto his back and stared at the sky again, exhaling a long, near-silent breath as he realized the answer to his own wonderings. There was only one thing that could so completely rattle Naruto. One thing that could affect the other teenager to the very depths of his being and throw his character so wholly out of the norm: Those nightmares, they had to be about his special people. And, of his special people, there was no question that his white-haired _sensei_ had become the most important one of all.

"Huh..." The jounin said to a passing, tear-drop shaped cloud. "That's troublesome."

...KNKNKN...

The clouds of dust that had arisen from his last explosive tag cleared from the air as Naruto breathed deeply, feeling the adrenaline of his last series of practice moves ebbing slowly from his blood. This had been a good one—a couple of hours of sending his clones off on tactical manoeuvres in the forest and reducing every target dummy that he could find to flying splinters with _Rasengans_—leaving him a sweaty, dirty, but exhausted mess. He slumped against a nearby tree, and felt kinda pleased with himself, a half smile on his lips because he'd only thought about Kakashi about half-a-dozen times rather than the standard twenty-five or so he usually did. "Heh..." Naruto sighed, looking up through the leafy canopy at the hot sun high above. "You still better be home soon, you perverted bastard you."

The delicate clearing of a throat had scored across Naruto's ears and had him leaping sideways in reaction, a _dwaahh?!_of surprise exploding out of him as he turned and twisted in mid-air to confront the ANBU that had made the noise, his blue eyes bulging out in comical fright as he stared at the bird-masked woman. "HEY!" He shouted as he landed, one grimy finger pointing accusingly at the still figure regarding him. "Don't do that! Don't you know I could have killed you?!"

There was a long moment of silence, and then the woman's shoulders moved slightly in what Naruto took to be an apologetic shrug. "My apologies, Uzumaki-san." She said lightly, though the teen could have sworn there was a hint of amusement in her high, smooth voice. "I did not mean to interrupt your training. I am only here to deliver a message from the Hokage."

Tension clenched like a fist around the blond's heart as he heard those words, and before he could stop them, the words flew from him as he darted towards the ANBU, closing the distance between them in the blink of an eye, staring down directly into the eyeholes to peer into the dark eyes that hid within. "This isn't about Kakashi, is it?" He asked, terrified to hear the answer.

"N-no..." The woman replied, a stutter of nervousness hitching her reply. "As far as I know Hatake-san is still out on his mission. This is about a meeting with an envoy that wishes to make you acquaintance." The Hokage had told her that much at least before she'd sent her out to this far training field to call the Jinchuuriki back to the village. _Does he know how much chakra he exudes?!_ _Such power!_

Delicately, the bird ANBU stepped back, resolving to never again make fun of Tenzo when he was called out to aid this teenager. She hadn't realized that her comrade was dealing with such danger when he worked with the Uzumaki kid.

_She'd always seen him as kind of goofy._

_Time to reassess that view._

"If you will accompany me, Uzumaki-san...the Hokage wishes to see you now." Better to fall back to protocol than think about that now, but as Wren led the way back through the swooping branches of the trees, she couldn't help but begin to see the blond with new, and more sharply assessing eyes.

**I am so sorry for the long wait, I had so main things happen at once that I just had to walk away from the story to focus on those things. Once I came back my computer stopped working. This whole chapter was written by my co-writer and I just want to say thank you to her for sticking around and helping. I oversaw that chapter but every word is from her. Anyway on to chapter 4 :) -WM**


	4. Chapter 4

Thorn of the White Rose

Chapter 4

**An Affair of the Heart**

"Heart in my mouth,  
Pulse in my head;  
mercury rising into the red:  
The smell of your skin can light up all the fires in me.

Rick Springfield, "An Affair of the Heart"

Naruto's legs were shaking by the time he made it to the Hokage's office. Despite his initial relief that this was not about Kakashi, he couldn't help but think about the other man as he followed the bird-masked ANBU back towards Konoha, and he couldn't help worrying about him, either. He was taking long, deep breaths as he climbed the stairs, keeping pace with the deceptively slim, feminine figure in front of him. _This wasn't about him._ Naruto kept reminding himself. _She said it wasn't about Kakashi._

By the time he made it to Tsunade's office, he was breathing hard, and his face was hot, and every eye turned to stare at him as he barged into the office, his own attention engaged in scanning the room, the hope within him for one glimpse of that hair, or that face. But Kakashi wasn't there, and Naruto's shoulders deflated as he finally focused on the Hokage, his curiosity finally managing to emerge now that his fear—his hope, had been assuaged. "Um, hi Baa-_chan_." Using a dirty sleeve, he wiped the sweat and grime from his face. "Birdy-_chan_ said that you wanted to see me."

Tsunade levelled a glare at her little brother, her blonde brows drawing down as she saw beneath the damp, dusty coating over him with an experienced medic's eye. "What has happened to you?" She demanded, leaning over her desk, her nose wrinkling as if she could almost sniff out the problems the blond teen was hiding inside of him. "I haven't seen you in two weeks and you come into my office looking like that?!"

Disregarding the others in her office, she rounded her desk and glared down at the _Chunin_, seeing the wan colour of his normally golden skin and the dark circles under his blue eyes. Her immediate thought was that that silver-haired _baka_ had hurt him in some way, but she knew that she would have heard somehow if that had happened, for her apprentice was uniquely connected to the relationship between her teammates. But, Sakura hadn't said anything about there being a problem between them...in fact, Sakura hadn't said much about Naruto or Hatake lately, at all.

Tsunade huffed out a breath as she realized that she was primarily responsible for that fact, for she'd been keeping the_ Kunoichi_ busy at the hospital, and concentrated on her apprenticeship. A curse escaped her under her breath, and she vowed to suss out other sources to check on the boy. "Hm...Naruto...yes..."

Straightening her shoulders, she called the rest of the room back to their agreed upon purpose, nodding to the representative from Mount Myoboku as she went back around her desk. "You remember Fukusaku-_sama_, Naruto, don't you?" Tsunade watched as those normally brilliant blue eyes discovered the presence of the small toad, the look in them at first surprised, and then saddened, as the teen recalled the last time he'd seen the amphibian. "The great sage toad has come to see you on the recommendation of someone dear to both of us. Someone that though you would do well to lean from the toads as he had done."

Hesitating, the Hokage looked to the toads, the emotions welling up in her still to tender to speak around. "Well..." She said, ceding the floor. "He'll tell you."

Swallowing against the tightness in her throat, Tsunade sat down behind her desk, leaving the unpleasant reminders of a life lost to the toad to deliver. It was just too much to ask of her today.

There seemed to be an itchiness to the air in the Hokage's office, Naruto thought, as he shifted nervously in place. Something that his Baa-_chan_ was obviously feeling too, for she looked uncomfortable now after her determined glare of just moment ago. He wondered what could have affected her so, and switched his gaze to the really small, really old-looking toad that was standing so erect on a table just to the side of her desk. The little green amphibian had a shock of white fluff for hair, and he was wearing the same kind of cloak with a very high collar as he had before; one that gave him a kind of funny look of authority. "Hey." Naruto said, offering a jittery smile, his stomach hurting as he remembered the last time he'd seen the toad.

"Hello, yourself, youngling." Fukusaku returned neutrally, staring at the fidgety teenager that his Jiraiya-boy had recommended for further training. "I am much pleased to make your acquaintance once more. Someone I placed great faith in wished that I could train you."

The time before, when he'd come to inform Konoha of his student's death, he hadn't seen enough of the boy to take measure of him. This time though, he'd come specifically to meet the one his Jiraiya-boy had praised, and assess him for training.

He could see now how the notion that someone could think of highly of him was novel enough, and distracting enough, that it lifted this Naruto Uzumaki out of his doldrums for a moment and returned a bit of the gleam to what should be brilliant blue eyes. The attentive elder toad could see how that slumping, exhausted teen suddenly bloomed before him at that ill-defined praise, and suddenly could see just why his student had thought so highly of this boy. _There was, _he thought, _an earnest need within him to 'do better'; to be better._

And the slightest hint of a compliment had brought that out in him. Jiraiya had told him that this boy didn't lack for self-confidence, and for stubbornness, but the teenager that had come in the door had none of that in him, none that the toad had seen. It hadn't been until that praise had been offered to him that Naruto Uzumaki had shown the promise, the drive, that Jiraiya had spoken of. That eased Fukusaku's heart, for through that small show of emotion, he knew that he would be able to fulfill the last promise he'd made to his student and train this boy.

_Or, at least, attempt to train this boy. The rest of it remained to be seen_

"Hello, _Jiji-sennin_." Naruto said respectfully, a faint smile at the corners of his lips as he looked over at the toad. He was curious to know who'd talked about him, for it looked like he'd said nice things about him, and Naruto was always eager to know who _liked_ him. Already, he was searching his brain, and when the connection was made he could have smacked himself, for whom else had he known that had combined both Sage Technique and toads?

"It was the Pervy Sage!" He burst out, the thought barely in his mind before it was emerging out of his mouth. "Of course it was Ero-_sennin! _He's the one that recommended me!_"_

The small toad let out a brief burst of laughter at Naruto's words, a big smile curving up his non-existent, green lips, one that tugged an answering smile from Naruto. Some of the weight that had been holding down his heart lifted in that one moment, as fond memories of his _sensei _ came back to him, the sadness over Jiraiya's death that had been like a low-down ache in his stomach mixing with the happiness of kinda almost hearing from him again.

"Aye, it was Jiraiya-boy." Fukusaku replied, taking in the various, easily seen emotions that were passing over that young face. "He was my student as you were once his."

"Oh." Naruto said softly, trying to picture that and failing utterly, a puzzled look coming over his thoughtfully twisted face. "You were his _sensei?"_

"Aye, and he asked me to come and see you, and to train you as well. Jiraiya seemed to believe that you had a great deal of promise, Naruto Uzumaki, and I've come to see if he knew what he was talking about."

Tsunade let out a faint snort, and most of the attention in the room turned to her as she reacted to what the venerable elder toad had said. "Yes." She smiled, and those in the room could almost see the memories of her teammate's antics playing behind her eyes. "You obviously knew Jiraiya very well."

That comment seemed to lighten the heaviness in the room that had come with the name of one of their revered departed and those others that were in there with Naruto and the toad began to talk amongst themselves, debating the wisdom of taking the teen to Mount Myoboku to train where the Akatsuki wouldn't be able to find him. Shikamaru's father, Shikaku Nara was all in favour of it, as was Shizune, who seemed to think that he should rush back to his apartment _right now_ to pack and leave.

Normally, Naruto would have been in favour of doing that exact same thing, the tempting idea of learning new jutsu and techniques thrilling him to his very bone marrow. But, he stood there in the midst of all of this chatter and found that he wasn't that eager to jump right into this specialized training, and that he kinda resented that all of these people were talking about him as if he wasn't even in the room. As if he wasn't even there.

From where he stood on the table at the side of the Hokage's office, Fukusaku watched the goings on around him, focusing on the one, very special young man that his student had asked him to help. There were a lot of emotions going on in those bright blue eyes, ones that gave away the boy's feelings over this offer that had made to him. The toad caught the resentment that rose as the conversation continued over and around Naruto...taking no consideration as to what he wanted, and though he knew that Tsunade Senju, the leader of this village had the right to order her shinobi to do what she wanted, Jiraiya had emphasized what this was a great kid to him: One that never stopped and never surrendered once he'd made up his mind to do something.

Fukusaku wanted to harness that stubbornness, and that implacable will, and he knew that the best way to do that was to have Naruto Uzumaki make up his own mind that he wanted to come.

A blink of an eye and he was on the teen's shoulder, peering down into those astonished blue eyes as they shot to him, that whiskered face going bright red at being so easily surprised by an old toad. He grinned at the boy, curving his lipless mouth upwards reassuringly. "I think that you should make up your own mind as to whether you want to go or not, Uzumaki-c_han_." Fukusaku said, in a very firm, very decisive voice. "This is to be your future, not any of those others that are present here with us."

There was an abrupt silence in the room as the rest heard the elder's words, and they all turned to look at the blond teen and his green companion, the great respect that the _Shinobi _inherently had for their Summons precluding any of them attempting to override that decision—especially when it came from one that was so venerated, and so highly ranked.

"If you are sure..." Tsunade murmured, trusting her deceased teammate's _sensei_'s judgement. "We will honour whatever you decide, Fukusaku-_sama."_

"And I will honour whatever Uzumaki-c_han_ decides." The toad replied, his gaze steadily on the teen's face, reading his open emotions. _Such confusion there, and such eagerness, but with the flash of something behind those blue eyes that is holding him back from committing..._

"Well, Naruto?"

Suddenly confused that they were actually asking him, it took the teen a few, highly embarrassing, moments to come up with a coherent answer. But he did use that time to think first, and when he spoke, his voice was strong and clear, and as decisive as it needed to be. "I would like a couple of days to think about it." He said, one tanned, grimy hand coming up to rub at his whisker-scarred cheeks. "And maybe _Jiji-sennin_ might like to see me do some sparring?"

Fukusaku and Tsunade exchanged an understanding glance, for they'd already discussed the presence of another in the boy's life, and the toad, knowing as he did from his student that Naruto Uzumaki placed the well-being of those precious to him before all other things, comprehended just why the blond was choosing to 'think it over'.

"I think that I would like to do that." He nodded, making it seem to be a thoughtful, considering gesture. "In three days time then, we will have your final decision, Naruto Uzumaki. To stay or to go. To learn or to not learn."

_Three days in which your Kakashi Hatake might come home. Or he might not._

...KNKNKN...

Precisely fifty hours and twenty-nine minutes later an equally as dirty, exhausted and confused Kakashi Hatake stood before his Hokage with his ANBU teammates at his side and listened to Tsunade explain that an old toad had come calling for Naruto. He heard her out in silence, his expression blank behind both of his masks, knowing that Jiraiya had arranged for a unique opportunity for his young boyfriend. That the honour of going to Mount Myoboku and learning directly from the sage toads was something that Naruto should accept. Not only would it further strengthen the young man and enable him to better fight his too-numerous foes, but it would also place him somewhere absolutely safe for at least a month...at least a month in which the _Jounin_ wouldn't have to worry about what might be happening to him.

But, Tsunade told them that Naruto had declined the offer...or, at least, had put off the decision, and they both knew exactly why that was. Tenzo, who was standing beside Kakashi knew, too, for he could feel the dark eyes focused upon him as the other man stared at him from behind his cat-marked mask. Resolutely, he ignored the slightly censuring air that was coming from his comrade and concentrated instead upon his leader in front of him. They were both in agreement as to what should be done, Kakashi knew as his one visible eye met those of honeyed brown. This was the best course of action, especially considering the information that his team had brought back from the recon mission they'd been on.

There were too many uncertainties with the mysterious actions the Akatsuki were pursuing around the remains of an old temple on the far side of the Land of Grass. They hadn't been able to get close enough to really see what they were digging for, but to Kakashi it had looked like most of the population of the nearby villages were out there with shovels and adzes, excavating at the base of a low rise of hills. The photos and other intel they'd brought back needed to be gone over, but for some reason, the sight of all of those people laying waste to their own land when they should have, instead, been preparing it for autumn harvesting, had set the Jounin's battle-sharpened nerves on edge.

"I'll have a word with him." The silver-haired man murmured, a silent sigh flowing and ebbing in his tired body. "I think that I can get him to go."

"Good." Tsunade said, gathering up the files that the ANBU had brought back to her and the council. "We both know it's for the best."

The other shinobi had held their positions while this topic had been discussed around them, but now their leader motioned for them to go, and between one breath and the next, the majority of Kakashi's team disappeared, all except for Tenzo. His co-captain for Team Kakashi had stayed with them, mostly out of concern for their blond teammate. No doubt the man had a question or a suggestion that he wanted to put forwards in that capacity, rather than as an ANBU operative.

"He'll be well protected there?" Yamato asked, removing the painted porcelain mask to reveal his usual headgear beneath. "At the mountain? The last thing we want to happen is for Naruto to go off with the toads and be abducted when he was being kept safe here in Konoha." His dark eyes were utterly serious as he looked from his silver-haired teammate to his leader. He had no Summons to call, and had never signed a contract, so he had no assuredness that the place the teen was going to would be secure enough.

"More than safe enough." Tsunade murmured, and Kakashi nodded his agreement beside him.

"There's no way to get to the mountain." His comrade explained. "No pathways, no trail. No _mapped_ trail." Kakashi emphasized, remembering the legend of a drunk Jiraiya and a fortuitous meeting. "No way to find it unless the toads do a reverse summoning on you. It's one of the three secret, unexplored areas, _and_ it is protected by the toads. Don't underestimate them just because they are small, and green."

"No..." Yamato replied, recalling the huge form of the Toad King that had come in answer to Naruto's Summoning during the Sound's invasion of Konoha three years ago, the image of the massive bulk of that powerful amphibian still sharp in his memory. "Just so long as you're sure he'll be safe."

"He will be. And he will learn things that will make him even more powerful." Tsunade sat down in her chair and leaned back, steepling her fingers in front of her. "Little brat might even become a sage."

"If anyone could..." Kakashi murmured, rifling his fingers back through his dirty hair. "He could."

The thought of his love made his stomach clench like a fist, and he suddenly drew himself up to his full height, the motion a request to be dismissed. There were too many other things he wanted to do rather than stand here and assuage Yamato's worrying habits. Naruto was out there somewhere and Kakashi was eager to see him. _Longed_ to see him, and to smell him, and feel him...and to just be _near _him.

He was so needy after two weeks away that he didn't waste a moment when his Hokage gave him permission to go, but was out the window before she could get the last word of the dismissal out of her mouth.

...KNKNKN...

Freed of the last of his responsibilities from his mission, Kakashi headed across the rooftops, wondering just where he would find Naruto right now. It seemed likely that his golden-haired boyfriend would be out training, working off some of that abundant energy blowing up trees and making tremendous holes in the ground for practice. He was half-tempted to go and look for him, just to see the broad grin he knew his appearance would earn, but a greater need to shed his armour and shower tipped his destination in favour of his own apartment.

It was with a deeply heart-felt groan that he opened his front door, resetting the wards and jutsu as he shut it behind him. Instantly his senses registered that there was another in his home, and he straightened to ready himself, even as he realized that there was only one person that could be there, and he opened his arms just in time to catch the solid, compact form that hurtled towards him.

"Naruto." Kakashi sighed, wrapping his arms around the younger man and holding him close. "I didn't expect to find you here at this time of day. I thought you'd be out training in the fields, especially with Fukusaku-_sama_ here to check you out."

"Didn't feel like." Naruto murmured, pressing his face to the hard armour over his love's chest, breathing in the smell of sweat and dirt that had come home with Kakashi. "Was out there all day yesterday, and most of the day before. Just felt like I wanted to be here today."

He'd just felt like Kakashi might be coming home today, and he'd wanted to be here to not miss a moment of his return. "You're home." He sighed. "You're finally back."

All of the fear that had been inside of him these weeks since he'd last seen the silver-haired man just disappeared in his presence. All of the hopeless despair, and the worry...it all just wasn't _there_ now that Kakashi was. It was almost magic. But, the best kind of magic, the best kind of jutsu, and Naruto wrapped his arms tighter around that armoured form, holding the taller man right where he was. "I know...I know that I shouldn't worry about you 'cause you're the very best at what you do." He finally admitted, rubbing his whiskered cheek against the plating. "But I couldn't stop myself."

The dirty, scraped fingers that had been resting in the sensual curve at the base of Naruto's spine moved upwards then, and he carded them through the thick, blond hair of the teen, caressing and tugging, and soothing the worries away from the inside of that tender-thick skull, wanting to reassure his boyfriend that he was actually there. That he was actually home. "I know." Kakashi replied, tracing the soft skin behind one ear with his fingertip over and over again. "I know."

He'd do exactly the same thing if Naruto were out in the field and **he** was stuck back in Konoha. Worry and fret, and try to think about anything else while he was keeping himself busy. _Oh, yeah...the jounin understood it all too well._

"Aa..." He was massaging circles again, this time into the hollows at the back of his love's skull, easing him, easing himself. "Well, I'm home now, and in need of a shower, what say we..."

That blond head tipped back at that moment, and Kakashi's breath caught as he saw the changes that had been wrought in Naruto in the time that he'd been gone. Those blue eyes stared out at him from an exhausted, narrowed face, too bright, and too open to belong to the robust force of nature that had always been a hallmark of the teenager he'd fallen for. Those scarred cheeks were hollowed, and shadows so dark they could have hidden the stars in them crescented under golden lashes. He swallowed convulsively, his eye blinking hard, as if the motion could change what he was seeing and make it all all right again. "Na-naruto?" Kakashi's voice clicked in his throat, and his hands were quickly and demandingly at his love's jaw, holding him still for inspection.

"Naruto? What...?"

"Yeah." Eyelids that were paper-thin with fatigue came down to shelter his eyes from his boyfriend as Naruto echoed Kakashi's swallow, his Adam's apple bobbing like behind the skin of his throat. "I...I didn't sleep very well while you were gone."

"Nor eat, either, apparently." Kakashi said, his fingers feeling the unfamiliar lightness of that body pressed against his own. "How could you have not eaten?"

He was flabbergasted...sickly amazed that his absence could have produced a result like this, and he pushed the blond away from him to get a better look at him. "Naruto..."

"It's all right, Kakashi!" Struggling his way out of that grip that had suddenly become so tight, the teen stepped back from his love, looking down at the floor, not wanting to give anything more away. "I'm all right. I'm fine! I'm fine...now that you're back."

He took a few more steps away towards the bathroom, seizing upon a reason to avoid any more questions, anymore answers. "C-c'mon, 'Kashi, I'll..." Naruto hesitated, gesturing feebly towards the other room. "C'mon, I'll...I'll help you wash."

The notion to do that strengthened his will and straightened his spine, and the teen fell back on his innate stubbornness, refusing now to answer as he purposefully walked away. "I'm running the shower." Naruto said, going right in and doing just that, turning it on so that the hot spray poured down. "I thought you said you wanted to wash."

What else could the _jounin_ do but follow, and, despite his concern over the blond's appearance, what else could he do but be impressed by the show of mule-headedness that his love had just displayed. He was encouraged by the display, really, and he allowed a bit of his concern to fade away...the idea that Naruto would be going off to the tutelage of the toad sages and the safety of their mountain _was_ a reassuring one.

_He would, however, be talking to his blond about this later. This kind of fading away just because he was gone was not going to happen._

"Kakashi...?"

"I'm coming."

A pleasant reward for his compliance awaited him in the steaming room, a half-naked Naruto that was swiftly on his way to becoming a fully naked one. Pale skin that should have been the colour of fine sand was being revealed at a tantalizing rate, and he was riveted by the sight, frozen in his tracks as he tried to undo one of the fastenings of his armour. "Aa...aa..." _Kami, how he'd missed this...this beauty. _Thinner than he had been, the shadows of his bones more pronounced, there was still so much loveliness to Naruto, still so much allure, it nearly took his breath away.

Somehow his hands remembered how to work and Kakashi completed the removal of his armour, gently setting it down outside the bathroom door where he could clean and polish it tomorrow. Mask, mask and all of his other clothing followed after, dropping all of it to the floor except for that white ANBU porcelain one—that one he made sure to put outside the door—to put where neither of them could see it until it was needed again.

_That _symbol did not belong with them, not where there was love.

...KNKNKN...

As naked as his lover, he stepped under the hot spray, crowding Naruto over against the tile wall where he looked down on him, letting the pure affection and desire he was feeling show in his eye. "I am very glad to see you." He whispered, setting his cheek gently next to one scarred with whiskers, murmuring his words right into the whorl of a perfect ear. "In case I forgot to mention that."

That golden body arched under his, their skins rubbing together and Kakashi released a hiss as another part of his body made its pleasure very well known. Naruto moaned for him then, and at the sight of those plump lips opening, the temptation was too much, and he dipped his head in and took them, kissing his love deeply, hungrily, devouring him as he pinned him to the wall, his hands moving eagerly everywhere that he could reach.

On and on that kiss went, their desire to be with each other overriding even their need to breathe. Naruto clung to him, his callused hands tight on the _jounin's_ biceps, fingers digging in desperately, nails scraping and scratching. Kakashi nudged a knee between slim thighs, pressing it to the sweet shaft that rose there, teasing and appreciating, urging his love on, never minding the scratches.

They broke apart panting and rutting, the hot water spitting down on them, and he'd never felt sexier, never seen a sexier sight than the honest desire in those darkened blue eyes gazing up at him. Naruto gave everything of himself, everything inside of him that there was to give, and having that focused on him, being offered to him, made Kakashi feel as if he were the luckiest man alive. "Soap." He said, his tone low and growly, as if it were the most sensual word in the language, reaching out to swipe the bar from the soap dish. "I need soap."

Lather quickly formed, white and tea-scented around his hands, and he caressed them all over Naruto, touching every inch of that soft, warm skin as his love leaned back against the wall, Kakashi kneeling down to wash each languidly raised leg and between each callused toe. Gazing up from that lowered position, he couldn't help but see the arousal that bobbed and swayed just at eye level, the very sight of it winding a hunger into the _jounin_ that only one action would assuage.

"_Kami...Naruto..." _There was a raw ache in his voice as he murmured those two words, sliding closer on knees that still pained from his mission, needing to have more. Kakashi licked his love there, slipping his tongue over that radiant, salted tip, sucking just a little to hear the soft moans of his name coming from above. He'd missed this. "I missed you." He said under the patter of the water, whispering it between gentle sucks, the glowing coal of his one grey eye gleaming upwards. "Never think that I didn't"

Tender fingertips traced lines of Kanji over those taut, shivering legs, writing words of love and admiration that the man himself would never speak of. Up and up they went as he took his lover into his mouth and quickened him, holding Naruto still now and then, when he whimpered, and would have thrust. Only when Kakashi knew that the younger man was on the brink of spilling did he cup the tightened sac in his hand and press questing fingers to the sensitive skin just behind them.

Naruto quaked to his bones, his hands flat the tile wall behind him as he moaned his lover's name and came, hips jerking and shuddering, his belly pulled back flat as his blue eyes closed in ecstasy. "'_Kashi...!" _He cried out, his head thudding back against the tile as his back arched spasmodically. "_Kashi!"_

Pleasure-weakened knees gave out on him, folding him to the floor where he threw his arms around his love's strong shoulders and fell on him, gasping his name with glad desperation. Naruto hugged him tightly, somehow finding those fine, shapely lips, salty with his release and kissing them with sloppy, joyful kisses that had them both laughing a little at the end, the mixture of emotions and the happily satiated enthusiasm of the blond taking them both down on the tile floor, limbs all tangled around each other.

"You were..._awesome, _'Kashi!" Naruto grinned, sliding himself up over that wet body so that he could look down into the older man's uncovered face. "Your mouth is..._Kami! So good!"_

It was always better when he left his love speechless, and the _jounin_ felt a particular bit of perverted pride that he had done this to his boyfriend. A rosy glow was in those cheeks, and a bright, eager sparkle in blue eyes that was so different and so much livelier than they'd been before. _There was his Naruto._ Kakashi thought, reaching up to draw the younger man down into another passionate kiss. _This was how it was supposed to be._

"Mah, Naruto." The water droplet on the tip of the teen's nose was too much for him to ignore and he licked it away slowly, a deliberate laving that echoed one he'd performed lower down just a short while ago. "This is too much. I think a bed would be much better under this old back of mine."

The blond laughed at that, his bewhiskered cheeks flushing with more than just the (fading) heat of the water pouring down on them. "Old back, huh?" He repeated, rearing up so that he could straddle Kakashi, dropping his knees to either side of deceptively slim hips and nestling his bottom over a very un-old part of his lover's anatomy that slid just so between his nether cheeks. "You can't fool me."

Blue eyes that were very discerning for once, examined every inch of the white flesh that was laid out under him, following the line of every muscle, the corded, lithe strength of his love's taut belly, the dark nipples that were peaked for his touch alone and the tempting indent of a small navel. There was nothing about Kakashi's body that Naruto didn't like. All of that hardness and the abilities that it implied. All of the power locked up in the nerves and tendons that twitched and shortened under his touch. All of it..._his._

"You're right." The teen conceded, reaching for the soap that had been so haphazardly dropped on the floor and working it between his hands. "This would be better somewhere other than here." Carefully, he began to wash the skin that was only wet with water, cleaning away the last of the hidden bits of grime that had escaped their earlier efforts, water running dark and muddy and not swirling crimson across the white tile. "I'm thinking...a bed would be good."

_A bed would be great considering just how aroused he was with his lover's cock sliding back and forth across that sensitive skin. So many more things could be done in a bed...especially when this was real. This was real, and not a nightmare._

...KNKNKN...

Kakashi rolled his lover across the bed, nudging that round, firm ass high into the air as he went up on his knees behind him. He was hard, almost painfully so, red and hot, his cock jutting out from his hips as he moved forwards between splayed, bent legs. There had been no relief for him from the sucking his blond had given him once they'd made it to the bed. The prolonged, hungry attack had taken him repeatedly to the edges of his pleasure, only for Naruto to grip him tight and deny him what he'd been begging for. Over and over his hips had arched upwards, and he'd twisted his fingers so tightly into damp blond hair that he come away with strands of it sticking to his skin, but he'd been held back, eased back, and his love had started him up all over again.

The _jounin _didn't know what had driven his love to attack him so sensually, but he wasn't complaining, only pleading for more of the same. That didn't mean, however, that he hadn't taken note of the desperate edge that still seemed to cling to Naruto, to the way that his hands had touched every inch of his skin, or the way that that exploration had felt more like an examination, but he wasn't going to interrupt what they were doing now in order to ask...

Questions of that nature, they needed to wait until later.

Until after this.

Lubricating oil glistened on his hands as he touched and caressed, his movements repeating the ones that had put him at the edge of ecstasy just a little while ago. Kakashi's own sac was heavy and drawn up, his perineum aching from the kisses and touches bestowed upon it by his love. The sensitive nerve-endings around his own opening were singing from the stretching and the licking it had received, and every time he shifted, every time he bent or twisted, more of those zinging little carnal sparks raced up his spine and through his blood and made him shiver. Naruto had done all that he could to arouse him, winding up so tightly he was a string on a bow, just ready to fire.

"_Kami, Naru..." _With deft, callused hands he spread that fragrant, coconutty oil over the sensitive tissues of his blond's groin, cupping the delicate, hanging sack and playing with the two globes he found within, drawing out the silky skin so that it was smooth and red and letting it fall back again into its own wrinkled splendour, but not touching the arching shaft in front of them, wanting to share the delay in satisfaction that Naruto had initiated with him.

"Sssh..._ssshhh..." _Kakashi murmured, hearing his own name whimpered on a repeating loop in an accelerating whine. "I have you, Naru."

Pressing his fingertips into the strip of flesh behind that reddened sac, he found the delicate, sensitized gland that hid behind it, and he slipped his thumb deep into that twitching hole to pinch Naruto's prostate between the two, rubbing it deliberately as he held that suddenly heaving body down with his other hand. Incoherent, choking noises assaulted his ears as Naruto bucked and screamed, but Kakashi didn't provide enough friction to make his lover spill over, for he released that erotic hold just when he thought it was becoming too much. "Aaa..." He breathed, taking one slow deep inhale after another, for the sight of his lover shuddering for him had been like electrical charges through his optical nerve. "Aaa...you are..." Kakashi had been close to coming himself, just seeing Naruto like that taking him close to his edge.

"You are too much."

_It was enough. More than enough for the both of them, and there was no more waiting, no more delaying what they both wanted. _With gentle hands, taking care for the delicate, razor-sharp edge that they were both so precariously balanced on, Kakashi anointed the both of them with more oil, his gaze fixed up the glistening, flexing flesh that beckoned him forwards. He wanted to thrust himself inside of his lover and have him properly. Felt the need to do that so fiercely that it nearly choked him, but he reined it in with a supreme effort of will, wanting that time to be something they were both anticipating, not an act done on the spur of his own inability to control himself.

The time would come, and they would both be cognizant of it...both be thinking of it and hungry for it, and he would not take that away from Naruto...not on his first time.

Swallowing heavily, he realigned his thinking, realigned his head away from the tightness he knew that he would find in there and instead thrust forwards into the hot, slick skin at the apex of his lover's thighs, his breath whistling out of him as those golden-hued thighs instinctively closed, trapping him closer inside all of that sensitive flesh. Kakashi rutted there, his hard cock slipping and sliding, the friction between them a damned fine second best to what he'd been thinking about a second before. That round bum butted back against him, his teammate, his partner finding the rhythm that he was initiating until they matched perfectly, the bed beneath them moving in gentle harmony with their love-making. The mattress made a low thud against the hollowness of the walls and the sound was the basso profundo to the high tenor slap of their bodies coming together and the soprano of the noises that their pleasure was pulling from them, each movement producing a different, erotic song to heighten their enjoyment of each other.

Heat rose and spiralled inside of him, twisting and boiling, liquid fire climbing up from his lower belly and out to the _jounin's_ every finger and toe as his body prepared for the pleasure that it had been begging for for too long. The arousal burned in him, drawing him up to the heights of bliss, drawing up Kakashi's sac to painful tightness as he poised there on the precipice, wanting to fall over the edge and lose all of himself to this friction he and his lover were creating together.

"Naru..." He gasped, leaning down over the heaving compact body beneath him, his hips pistoning harder. "Close, love...so, so close." Kakashi released the controlling grip he'd had on those jerking hips and grasped his blond's hard, twitching shaft instead, firmly stroking him so that Naruto would come along with him into the bliss, his other hand sliding over a shuddering belly to caress and tease, and to pinch tender little nipples to shove his lover over that edge.

"Come, love..." Kakashi gasped, the slap of their bodies loud in his ears. "Come..."

White light exploded behind the _jounin's _eyes as the pleasure of their love-making claimed him utterly. Heat and stars and fireworks going off in a chain of intense delight that shivered through every inch of his body and made him lose complete control, his hips slamming into Naruto as his lover shoved back against him, coming just like he'd begged him to, the both of them spilling themselves just before collapsing onto the bed, curling and moaning, and crying out each other's names.

"Naruto..." Kakashi breathed, tucking himself around that compact form and hauling him tight against him. "Naruto, you..." He pressed his face to the damp blond hair at the nape of his love's neck, breathing in the scents of sweat and sea salt and soap. "_Aa, Kami..._you..."

There wasn't anything that he could really say. They'd said it all to each other with their bodies on this bed, and anything that he might still want to talk about, well, that could wait until tomorrow. Could wait until after they'd slept and made love, and slept again. Still buried between his lover's slick cheeks, Kakashi couldn't help the mindless jerking of his hips, nor, he suspected, could Naruto, for that round bottom was still rocking back against him, too. "Wow." Naruto murmured, a yawn punctuating that word. "That was..."

"It was." The jounin replied, tucking the damp head of golden hair beneath his chin as they both struggled to ease down after their shared orgasm. "You are."

"_Mmmm..." _Naruto murmured, and yawned again. Kakashi could feel the slow seep of wakefulness out of his lover's body, and remembered just how tired he'd looked earlier, so he tenderly stroked over whatever golden skin he could reach, easing him further towards the rest he so obviously needed. "Go to sleep." He urged, feeling the same need begin to fill him. "I'll be here with you in the morning."

Within moments that beautiful form was lax with sleep, and the gentle, deep breathing of a profoundly unconscious man began to sound in the darkened, quiet room. Tomorrow was soon enough to break the spell their reunion had cast upon the two of them, and the argument that would definitely ensue when he told Naruto that he wanted him to go to Mount Myoboku could be put off until then.

Kakashi could have just this one night of peace and affection, couldn't he? Plus, he didn't think that he was going to be able to awaken his boyfriend anyways. He knew from too much past experience, just how deeply the blond slept..._too_ much past experience.

Closing his eyes, he allowed himself the comfort of knowing that whatever else might happen, he and Naruto were together right now. Right now, there was a warm body in his arms and a familiar scent of sunshine and warm fur in his nostrils, and the knowledge of love in his heart. "'Night, Naru." Kakashi murmured, placing one last kiss into that blond hair. "It's good to be home."

Sleep tugged the _jounin_ down almost as soon as he finished speaking and, not a sound, not a person, not a _single bad dream_ disturbed them for the rest of the night.

**Authors' Note:**

*So sorry that we've been so tardy in providing a chapter for you. Unfortunately, my co-writer, the awesome Jacob, has been busy with his life as of late, and hasn't had the time to write that he'd very much like to have. I thought that I'd give you at least something to tide you over until the next, real plot update, so consider this a bit of moment in time, and a sensual reward for those of you who've been so great...patiently waiting for us to get our rears in gear! KEK


	5. Chapter 5

Thorn of the White Rose

Chapter Five:

Balancing atop a spire of limestone while sitting on a rectangular slab of rock was not as hard as it had been the first twenty times or so that Naruto had done it. After falling off again and again because he wasn't 'calm and centred' enough, he'd finally learned how to find the stillness inside of himself that allowed him to gather the Nature _chakra_ without the toad oil. Now it was as easy as breathing to sit here and gather it all in, letting the _chakra_ fill up his network, and make him hum with energy. He'd learned to let all of his senses meld with the natural world that was around him as he sat perfectly still, and he'd learned to recognize when he was full...so he hadn't been hit on the head by the (really painful) stick his sensei was wielding in days!

Though he was becoming convinced that Fukasaku-_jiji_ kept hitting him with it occasionally just because he wanted to.

Now that he was more able to keep his calm, Naruto found that he could think about other things than the Frog Kumite he'd been learning, and the dishes of bugs he ate morning, noon and night _(perfectly delicious protein, the toads said!)_. Things like how mad he'd been with Kakashi when the other man had basically forced him to come here to Mount Myoboku. Naruto hadn't wanted to leave him, and the memory of Kakashi patiently forcing him to listen to all of the very good reasons he had for wanting him to go made him wobble a bit on his piece of shale. _Damn if he wasn't still so peeved about it! _

The stone wobbled a bit beneath him as he frowned but he controlled it, and settled back into stillness through long, slow breaths, remembering how his boyfriend had used all of his subtle tricks to convince him to come here. Subtle and not-so-subtle tricks...Naruto wobbled a bit on his stone as his skin pebbled at the memories of some of them, but those were some pleasant thoughts that he was willing to put up with a wobble for.

Truthfully, though, his anger had kind of faded bit by bit. With every new thing that he'd learned, and every new ability he'd acquired, Naruto had been less and less pissed off at Kakashi and more and more happy to be here. _Frog Kumite __**was**__ kind of cool, after all._

Even more importantly, his nightmares had _changed_ while he'd been here. The teen didn't know if it was the sacred aspect of the mountain, or the fact that he'd learned to channel a whole new form of _chakra_, but the nightmares were less scary now...less _nightmare-y_...and more like those horror movies he'd used to watch when he was younger. There was a sense of distance from them now, as if he could just sleep and look, and understand that he was sleeping, and he didn't wake up screaming and sweating, and wanting to throw up and stuff, not anymore.

The slab shuddered beneath him as he thought of what he'd seen in those images, 'cause 'Kashi still got slashed, and there was still blood everywhere, but he was able to watch through the demon eyes that he was wearing, and he was able to pay attention to everything else that was going on around him.

At least, that was what he was trying to do every time he had the damned nightmare, 'cause it sure wasn't easy seeing Kakashi get wounded again and again and again, even if he knew now that it was only a stupid, damned dream, and it wasn't really happening.

_And, if it was really weird that he was running around inside of the Kyuubi's body, it did make a kind of sense, since they did really, kinda, share one body after all._

Naruto was beyond happy that the nightmares had changed though. He'd had a hard enough time keeping them from everybody back in Konoha, and here on Mount Myoboku he had no space of his own. _Sennin-jiji_ and his wife would have heard him for sure if he'd woken up in the night, crying out and puking all over the place, and they would have wanted to know what was going on. There was no way that he was ready to share that with _anyone_, especially not the toads...the scenes of Kakashi getting killed were hard enough to think about, let alone trying to describe them to someone.

The toads were kind of excited to have him after all, and _Sennin-jiji_ had been kind of impressed by how quickly he learned and by how determined he was...all of which made the teen feel as if he was really appreciated here. If they found out that he was having these kinds of nightmares, they might not think he was so great. Then he might be that strange kid again, and he might see **that** look in their eyes. The last thing Naruto wanted to see was that look from his childhood-not from someone that had taken him in and fed him like he was a part of their family.

Even if they did feed him bugs and worms. _That he was kinda growing to like the taste of, Kami help him._

_Sennin-jiji_ talked a lot about how the Pervy Sage would have been proud of him, though Naruto found it hilarious when the little toad called big ol' Jiraiya 'Jiraiya-boy'. Of course, he called Naruto 'Naruto-boy' as well, and when _Sennin-jiji_ said it sounded really good...like something a grandpa really would say.

That thought made him grin a little and he opened his eyes and stretched out his arms, arching his back, appreciating just how warm the sun was on his skin this far up in the air. "Well, that's enough of that for the day." He said, his whole system abuzz with the Nature _Chakra_ he'd gathered. Carefully unfolding himself, he stood on the flat piece of rock and inhaled deeply, stretching his arms further above him. "I wonder how things are going at home?"

_I wonder how 'Kashi is?_

Naruto kicked off of the spire and sent the flat rock spiralling rapidly towards the ground. A shout from below had him looking down in wonder as he dropped towards the fast-approaching ground, and his blue eyes grew wide with delighted recognition as he saw one of his toad friends below with the little sage toad. "Hey, Gamakichi!" He shouted back, landing in the dirt with a small puff of air. "How've you been doing?"

"Why don't'ya watch what yer doin', Naruto?!" Gamakichi said angrily, recoiling back from where he'd been draped over Fukusaku-sama to protect him from the falling debris. "You almost nailed 'im!"

"What?!" Blue eyes scanned the scene and figured out what the big toad was talking about, and Naruto rolled his shoulders back in apology, his face lighting up into an 'aw, shucks' kind of smile. "Yeah, sorry about that." _heh heh_ He waved one of his hands and then went over to where his clothes were laying in a pile, pulling them on as the two toads watched from a safe distance.

"Wow! He sure is getting good." Keeping his voice down so that the kid wouldn't overhear him, Gamakichi murmured to the much smaller toad.

"Yes, yes he is." Fukusaku replied, looking fondly over at where the blond human was putting on his loud orange and black clothing. "Jiraiya-boy was right to believe in him. Naruto could very well be the child of the Prophecy."

That nigh-mythical boy that was supposed to bring peace to all Shinobi was someone that his former student had very much believed in, and the small toad thought that he was very much beginning to believe in it, too. After witnessing all of the rapid progress that they had made in the short time that they'd been working together, and the irrepressible sunniness of the boy's spirit, he was coming to believe it more and more all of the time. "Gamakichi...would you excuse us? Naruto-boy and I have some things we have to discuss."

"Yeah, sure..." The larger toad glared a good-bye at his friend and then _poofed _away, leaving the mismatched pair, the loud teenager and venerable elder alone together once more, the dust settling slowly in the wake of his abrupt departure.

"What did you have to talk to me about?" Naruto asked, going closer to the small toad, his blond brows drawn down in curiosity. "Is it some new jutsu? Or maybe a new move for the Frog Fu?" He dropped into an exaggerated stance, his hands moving in a terrible attempt at a Martial Arts move...one that made the small toad choke back a laugh.

"No, Naruto-boy," Fukusaku replied, unsuccessfully trying to hide a smile. "It's none of those...this is a whole other problem that we have to talk about. All of this training, all of this studying and learning will not do you any good once you have run out of the sage _chakra_ that you have learned to store."

"Ehh...?"

The elder toad let out a sigh, for he'd known that this would be hard to explain to his student. "Simply put, whatever opponent you are facing will only have to wait for you to run out of sage _chakra_ in order to have a chance to defeat you again."

"You mean, I'm going to run out in the middle of a battle?!" Naruto screeched. "But, but... I'll just sit down and absorb some more!"

"In the middle of battle?" Fukusaku reminded the teenager. "The only way that would be possible is if you have others around to cover you while you sit and recharge yourself."

"No way, _Sennin-jiji!_ Colour stained Naruto's cheeks as protested, his hands curling into fists at the thought of putting any of his special people in danger to help him. "That's why I'm doing all of this, you know. I'm doing it to keep all of my friends and family safe! I'm doing it so that they—" _Kakashi? Blood! "_—don't have to!"

Drawing in another deep breath, Fukusaku launched into an explanation, all the while trying to keep the young human from freaking out even more. There was a great deal of hand waving involved, and many more protestations before he got it through to Naruto that there was a way to handle the problem—though there was a moment there where the boy honestly thought that he and Fukusaku would actually become one being—he knew that there was just from the look on Naruto's face. Once disabused of that notion, the teenager became much easier to handle, and the old toad leapt up to perch on the boy's shoulder to show him just how it was done.

Of course, the demonstration couldn't be that simple, for the moment that Fukusaku tried to connect with Naruto in order to provide him with more sage _chakra_ he was thrown right off, the startling and violent repulsion of his effort actually scaring the elder toad with its suddenness. "Wha...what happened?" Naruto asked him, those blue eyes very wide as he crossed the intervening ground to help him. "I thought you were going to meld with me?"

"I tried, Naruto-boy." Fukusaku frowned. "I'll just try again."

But, the instant he got back on the boy's shoulder and tried to connect with his _chakra_ network, he was thrown off again, and this time the impression of the snarling fox-demon's face imprinted itself on his mind, the _Kyuubi's _red eyes definitely full of fury at what he was trying to do. Picking himself up from where he'd fallen, he brushed himself off and walked back over to where the boy was waiting for him. "I'm afraid that it's impossible, Naruto-boy...the demon will not let me join with you."

Another round of shouting and pouting, and hair-tugging anxiety followed, one that found one of the most revered Toad Sages following a teenaged human boy about trying to reassure him. Naruto was almost beside himself at the thought that all of this training had been for nothing, and out of desperation came up with the idea that he could fight and gather _chakra _all at the same time...

Needless to say, that didn't go well... After trying and failing many times, even Fukusaku was out of breath, and he called a halt to the blond's efforts, panting out an order for the boy to rest for a bit. "It is impossible, Naruto-boy, can't you see that? Essentially, it is looking in two directions at once..." He pointed left and right at the same time with his small flippers. "It is impossible to do so...to run and to fight, and to find the inner peace to gather _chakra _as well_, _you understand? It is just like trying to see what is going on to this side, and to the other side all at the same time."

There was a long pause after his words, and a tingle of anticipation went up Fukusaku's back that was something like seeing fluffy clouds on the horizon of an otherwise blue sky and just knowing that there was going to be a storm.

"Heyyy..." Naruto said, and a twinkle appeared in those bright blue eyes that made that hint of thunder on the periphery of Fukusaku's senses feel as if it was rumbling a bit louder. He felt something altogether unsage-like clench in his stomach to accompany those prickling nerves. "I think I know something about that..." The boy exclaimed, a rising excitement making him almost dance in place, clearly eager to show off what he knew.

The elder toad gazed up at his student with widening eyes, wondering faintly if this was going to end with the storm or the sunshine, for Naruto was grinning, and that grin was making Fukusaku very nervous for his immediate future. "Er...just what do you mean, boy? Just what are you going to do?"

...KNKNKN...

Dampness caught at the masked man's throat as he made his way through the dark interior of the cave, his red-cloud-figured coat pulled tightly around him to keep the water dripping from the ceiling from finding its way under his collar. Tobi was not a happy man. He didn't want to be the bearer of the news that he was bringing to his leader, but there was no one else to do it. No one else brave enough...or stupid enough...to be the messenger. The silent, aging legend at the apex of their organization was not going to take the news well, and being related to him was no guarantee that Tobi would survive the delivery of it. A chill went down the man's back that was not unlike the drip of that water would have been. After all, look at what had happened to the rest of the Uchiha Clan.

The only good news was another part of their project was making good progress. The excavations had nearly uncovered the ruins his master had been so excited about. When black Zetsu had come to fetch him to come to Madara, the first of the stones from the fallen towers had been moved aside to unblock the doorways, and the carving still on those standing monoliths were almost as sharp as the day they'd been made. They promised a wealth of information for those who knew how to interpret them. Tobi—Obito Uchiha, that is...presumed that his master would know just what they all said.

For the man was incredibly old...living only on the borrowed DNA of his mortal enemies, and the power of his Zetsus. But, even that good news was a distant hope against the certainty that Madara Uchiha would find something to punish him for, and he drew his head deeper down into the high collar of his coat as he entered the chamber his master had taken as his own. Obito had a sick feeling inside of him that Madara already knew the dire news that he brought, and a sudden swelling of anger for Zetsu filled him, for no doubt it was one of those creatures that had spied on them, and had gone slinking off to their master to share it with him.

Someday he would get back at those pasty-faced kiss-asses for all of the trouble that they caused him.

Madara Uchiha stood in the centre of his chamber, the small oil lamps placed about the cave lending only meagre light that flickered in the darkness, sending an oily smoke into the air that added a certain ominous feeling to the atmosphere. Obito tried to not let it get to him, but as that still-imposing figure turned to face him and those deadened black eyes came to bear on his mask, he felt his knees weaken and, rather that admit to such a failing in front of one that would mock him for it, he turned the shuddering into an almost-graceful descent.

"Sensei..." He said, daring to begin with the good news, hoping that his intuition was wrong. "The temple has been found right where you said it would be. The villagers have almost fully uncovered it, they dug back the last of dirt today, and the first of the large tower stones has been rolled away." Obito let a little of the pride he was feeling mix with the soft relief in his voice when he wasn't immediately rebuked. "You should be able to walk the floors of that ancient precinct in two days."

Of course the villagers had been working hard. Despite their putative alliance with the Land of Grass, the people were nothing more than their slaves, driven hard by his fellow Akatsuki to work far past the time when they should have been allowed rest. The women and children were also being utilized in the work gangs now, as the weaker males began to succumb to the brutal pace.

"I have made sure that we stick to the timetable you set out for us for this important..."

Obito's self-aggrandizing words came to a halt as a low rumble issued from his master's chest, and man's rejoinder came out as stiffly as a stout staff to the head, sending the masked Uchiha mentally reeling, making him shrink back into his coat.

"And yet….you still come before me as a failure." The elder clansman grumbled, that sound like a warning of distant earth tremors.

"Mast..." Obito tried to interrupt, but respectfully so...quietly so.

"Nagato is gone...is he not."

There was no question in that query, just disappointment and accusation, and Obito felt an icy finger trail its way up his spine. He knew that he was safe. That his role in what was to come was too important for him to come to too much harm, but it was the level of harm that was between that level and his current one that scared him. The elder Uchiha was waiting for him to answer though, stepping slowly towards him out of the shadows he'd been standing in, that proud, greying head emerging into the diffused light of the smoking lamps. There was nothing on that face that spoke of the furious hatred he knew the old Shinobi must be feeling, but the threat Obito could perceive coming in his direction bore down on him like leaden weights.

"He...he is, s-sensei." He stuttered, bowing his head, his guts clenching inside of him. "Gone with the betrayer...one of our clan."

"Did we not suspect him?" That gravelly voice scoured Obito's skin, and his sense of failure swelled, pressing out of him as that threat pressed him down from the outside, and he grovelled a bit more.

A non-committal noise came out of his sensei, like an aftershock from a tremor. "_Hmmm..." _Madara growled, those black eyes glittering in the semi-darkness. "You're failures are becoming more predictable and consistent, Obito. Where have _**I**_ failed that you are so lacking?"

Obito shuddered once more, for he knew that his sensei did not like having his student's failures reflected back on his teaching. Most times, when this happened, the elder Uchiha would transfer blame to the poor teaching of his first sensei, Minato Namikaze, but this was too important of a mistake...Itachi Uchiha had escaped with one of the most necessary pieces of their project. He rightfully feared that the blame would solely come to lie on his shoulders. _Kami damn the Zetsu...they couldn't keep their damned mouths shut!_

"I will hunt them down, sensei! Don't worry my lord...I will get your eyes back!"

That sound, that scoffing, dismissive sound came from the older shinobi and Obito felt his bravado fail before the sharpness of it. He flinched back, and tried to gather himself up to press his suit but the elder man turned to stare at him, and the power inherent in that flat black gaze silenced him.

"That will not be necessary, Obito, I have found a new solution to your failure."

The younger Uchiha's thoughts whirled as he tried to think of possibilities that could solve the disappearance of the only Rinnegan user that they had. No matter what he thought of though, the end problem was that they needed Nagato and his ocular jutsu in order to make it all work. "But, my lord, how can we do this? Without the Rinnegan how will we open the temple?"

Madara paced back across the uneven floor of the cave, heading towards the only functioning chair in the space. He sat himself down deliberately upon it, inhabiting it with his whole body, his legs spread wide as if he had actually mounted a throne...as if he were the king of all that he surveyed, and the younger Uchiha supposed that this was so. That the older man was the ruler here, and all of the secrets that he possessed made him the ruler of all that would come after their plan had been put into action. Then all of the rest of the world would know it, too.

"My lord..." He tried one more time, bowing his head obsequiously. "I do not doubt your wisdom, but we cannot move forwards without the Rinnegan...we need the ability passed down to his descendants from the Sage of the Six Paths."

"The Sage of the Six Paths and his egregious teachings did nothing but prompt the hypocrisy of the Shinobi World. The use of chakra only gives birth to war and false hope that someday the wars will end." Madara rumbled, sitting back into the shadow of the chair, his lined, aged face becoming one with the darkness beyond the smoking lamps.

"Of course, my lord, the legacy of the sage showed us that this world he made is trash, but how does this...?"

"_YOU HAVE INTERRUPTED ME!"_

Obito quaked as he knelt there abjectly on the floor, his skin shrinking away from the other man, though he made no move other than to flinch. He did bow his head a bit lower though, offering up his neck in symbolic submission.

"As I was saying, infinite suffering has been forced upon this reality by the "power" of chakra, the suffering that we wish to end." Madara continued to lecture in that ponderous, heavy voice "In order to do that we needed the Rinnegan, but… there are other legends that I have heard of, that may provide for the continuation of our plan, and for the peace we both crave."

"Legends?" Obito echoed, daring to look up.

"Yes, yes, my student." That voice rumbled, settling now into a timbre that the scarred Uchiha recognized as one of instruction. "You remember how I told you about the chakra of the sage's sons?"

"I do, my master. Of how that power has been reincarnated in their descendants in the generations since their demise. You have Indra's chakra in you." The Sage had had two sons, Indra the elder, and Asura the younger. Indra had been talented in the use of chakra, but had led a solitary life, having no close friends or loved ones. Asura had worked hard to learn his father's way, and had drawn many to him, filling his life with friends and loved ones. Eventually, in an act of great betrayal, the aging Sage had appointed the younger, undeserving Asura his heir, leaving the better of his two sons estranged from his brother.

It had not needed to be told to him that Indra had founded the Uchiha line, and that Asura had been the father of the Senju, though Obito had been surprised to learn that he was the father of the Uzumaki as well.

"There is also a legend…" His master continued, his voice descending into a heavy, meaningful drone. "That one born with the power to hold a tailed beast...one that is also a reincarnation of Asura...that their chakra will work with Indra's chakra. That it is possible to combine the two chakras to attain that which we wish to attain." The chuckle that came from the old man was coarse with dark amusement. "The child of the prophecy...the one said to be the boy that will bring peace to our world."

Obito knew of that prophecy, of course. Nagato had been unable to speak of anything else after the death of his former sensei, Jiraiya. For a moment he couldn't reconcile the vision they had for world peace with the one that Nagato had spoken of, and he hesitated before saying anything, not wanting to appear stupid.

His effort was lacking though, for his master laughed that gravelled laugh again, scraping it against his skin. "We will use the power of that child to start Infinite Tsukuyomi, Obito, that is our new plan." The tone of that voice excoriated him for his stupidity, and the younger Uchiha shrank back ashamed, laughing crookedly to cover his lapse for he couldn't see how his master could think that that prophecy could possibly be true.

"But, master...it is just a legend, is it not? Surely you can't believe in a fable like that? Everyone knows that the Toad Sage was an irresponsible lecher, a drinker..." He protested, only to be interrupted.

"All legends contain some kernel of truth, Obito. You, of all people, should know this to be true." The rest of that thought was left unspoken, for who was Madara Uchiha if he was not the seed of truth at the basis of more than one legend? "You do believe in the Sage of the Six Paths...do you not?"

"Only because you have shown me the truth, my master." He replied at once, bowing his head in supplication. Obito tried one more time to understand just how this legend would help them, since as far as he knew, the child of the prophecy had never been found. Certainly, the Toad Sage had spent his lifetime searching for him. At one point Jiraiya had even thought that Nagato was that child.

"He will have the power to spawn a new pair of Rinnegans." The elder Uchiha rumbled, bringing the younger's attention back to him again. "You must remember… only when both the chakra of Asura and Indra are together can the Rinnegans form, and in this case, when a reincarnation of Asura and a tailed beast come together in one being a Rinnegan can be formed… if that being knows how."

"And you know how, master?"

"Hmm..." Madara replied, lifting a single hand to rub his scarred fingers thoughtfully over his chin. "There is one boy alive now...one that contains a tailed beast, and one that bears the reincarnated chakra of the Sage's son. He is a descendant of Asura, and he will be the key to attaining our goals." A silence stretched out as the elder Shinobi thought over this development, a pleased glint appearing in his dull black eyes.

"Who is this prophetic child?" Obito breathed, unable to stand that lurking silence.

"The host of the Nine Tails." Came as an answer, shocking him.

"_Naruto Uzumaki?"_

"Yes." Madara nodded that proud, greying leonine head towards his student. "And you must be the one to prepare the boy for this duty. You must bring him here and he will open the temple."

"How do I get him to do that?" He quailed on the floor, peering up at his master in alarm. There were certain protective elements in Konoha that would not be easily overcome when it came to that boy. Even Obito did not dare to spend too much time there, the sensory Nin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves were rightfully legendary for their prowess.

"By attacking his heart, obviously." His master replied, the smile that curved those wrinkled lips seeming evil even to his student. "Everyone has a reason to fight, Obito. You have fought for Rin. I fight for my brother, and for peace for this world. Attack his soul, lay the proper ground, and he will come to us. But..." Madara held up an admonishing finger, signifying his need to add a warning to their plan. "...there are side effects to being the child of the prophecy that you must be aware of if our plan is to work."

"What are those, sensei?"

"Some writings suggest that he may be able to see glimpses of possible futures."

"Possible futures? How could this be?" Obito asked, struggling to take in all of the information that he was being given.

"No future is set in stone, my student, not even the one that we pursue no matter how much we wish that it would be so." The elder replied, the man and the chair disappearing into inky shadows as one of the smoking lamps guttered and went out. "If the chakra is balanced, he will see the proper path the future should take, but if it has become unbalanced, as I believe the case to be, then he will see other, different futures, ones that could possibly come to be." His master leaned forwards into the light that was left, the harsh shadows cast under his features giving him the face of a demon—an _oni_. "Listen and learn, Obito. Find out what he dreams of, and if it is to our advantage, use it against him. Exploit him, and you will make him our puppet."

There was that laugh again, and a shiver of dread went down Obito's spine even as he murmured his acquiescence. "Of course, my lord."

Slowly he rose from his knees, the left side of his body more awkward to straighten than the right, though he persisted in doing it smoothly even after so long on the damp ground. Dusting the dirt from his long black and red cloak, Obito turned to leave, sure that this was his dismissal.

"Obito." That single word froze him in his tracks, and he looked back, more reluctant than he would ever say to do so.

"You know that the Uzumaki boy is close to the one you used to call 'friend'. I do not wish to see any evidence of you showing any compassion to them because of this."

Obito forced a croaking laugh, shaking his head in rejection of any thought of compassion for Kakashi Hatake. "He means nothing to me now, my master, surely you are aware of that. Only your plan and your teachings have any meaning in my life."

That low laugh vibrated through the grey space of the cave, scratching against Obito's nerve endings as if they were exposed on the outside of his skin, and he could feel the sardonic nature of that laughter as if a mild poison had been added to the sound of it. It was clear that his master does not believe him. Does not even believe that Obito believes in what he says, and there is nothing that the younger Uchiha can summon to say to make either of them change their mind—therein lies a great problem, one that had grown between master and student these last few years. What can he say to reassure...?

"Obito." _His name again. Is it right that sometimes he hates the sound of his own name? _

"My master?"

"Do not fail me again."

_No, no. _Obito thinks as he makes an obeisance and turns to leave, maintaining a steady pace as he moves away, from the cave and it's only inhabitant even though he wishes to run. Even though he wishes to fold himself into his dimension and be alone. _No, master. I could never, ever think of failing you. The consequences are...unthinkable._

...KNKNKN...

The dust of several days desperate travel clung to the thin man's clothes as he closed on the high red walls of the village. He stared up at them from under shaggy, unkempt hair, and at the wide open gates that provided entrance beyond them, seeing the hustle and bustle of the streets just beyond, the people going about their business so happily. Konoha looked so...unguarded to this traveller. So carefree and at ease, and so unlike his own former home of Kirigakure, where there would have been heavily armed Shinobi at the gates and ANBU hiding in the approaches. There were none in the trees that this man could sense as he trudged onwards, and he couldn't help but wonder if it was overconfidence that dictated the lack of guards? Or was this village just that strong? Strong enough to be this peaceful?

_If it were the former, could he be safe here, as he'd hoped he might be, with foes of that calibre after him? And if it was the latter, and he could be safe...could he put this village in danger just by his presence in it?_

He halted in his steps, a pained expression coming over his pale, narrow face as he glanced up at those high, crimson walls again with anxious golden brown eyes. The last thing he wanted to do was to put anyone else in mortal danger as he had Hotaru. The last thing he would want ever do was to cause harm to someone when he had the means to avoid doing so.

_But then..._ A swift, wry grin touched his lips as he recalled why he had come to this place. Why he'd travelled so far and so fast, staying ahead of those that would capture and kill him all for what he carried inside of him. This place was supposed to be hard for them to infiltrate. This place was supposed to be safer for their kind—his and Naruto Uzumaki's. Naruto lived here, survived here...maybe there could be a place here for him, too.

Maybe they wouldn't turn him away.

Maybe they'd accept a missing nin from Kirigakure, and another Jinchuuriki into their village and protect him, too.

_Only a miracle had enabled him to escape. _Taking a step, he thought about that as he finally approached the gates, hobbling through them on feet that were swollen and sore after weeks of constant travel. There had been no rest for him in those weeks, for he hadn't dared to stop anywhere for too long lest he be captured again. Only here...only here was there hope that he might find a place to rest, and as he limped up to the guard desk, he let the weight of that hope bend his back and set wearily on his face so that the ordeal of those weeks showed so plainly on him that the two Shinobi gasped at the sight of him, one of them actually rising to offer his assistance.

Waving the man down, the dusty traveller leaned against the desk and offered a small, pained smile. "I beg your forgiveness for my condition." He said, his golden brown eyes dull with exhaustion and ache of prolonged fear. "I have come seeking Naruto Uzumaki... Tell him... Tell him that Utakata is here."

A/N: So, surprise! Another chapter! One containing a few surprises, I'd like to think. *smiles* Wishmaster and I have had lots of interference from RL in trying to get this written, but we still want to offer our apologies for it taking so long. We hope that you're still interested in reading what we're planning after all of this time.  
I have always wanted to rescue Utakata from his terrible fate, so I proposed working him into our story and providing him with sanctuary in Konoha. You may have been surprised to see him at the end of our chapter—after all, he was supposed to have been captured and killed months ago—but I hope it's the good kind of surprised.  
Also, another character that I have always thought needed rescuing has done some of his own. Itachi has deserted the Akatsuki and taken Nagato with him. (Yay!) We're going to see what we can do about keeping him alive, instead of seeing him die needlessly at the hands of his idiot brother.  
Once again, our apologies. **KEK**

**Hey everyone, sorry for the long break but I have a lot to say. This break has shown me a few things, one of them was that I was writing this story for the wrong reasons. Instead of going with my plan of a dark story that may have ending people don't like, I was writing the story everyone else wanted but not what I wanted. That is no longer the case! I hope all of you stick around to see this amazing story come to life.**

**Also do to the fact that this story does not have as many reviews and views as the first story, I will shorten this story by I think 6-8 chapters. We will see, hope you guys like that this story is taking its own path, away from the manga. I really love how our madara is still alive and how he acts. -wm**

**Reviews are nice BTW ****!**


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